Only in America

This is from "the big picture" editorial, by Angus MacKenzie; page 12, in the December 2006 Motor Trend magazine. (Not yet online, in it's entirety.)

The California government is suing six automakers for damages caused by global warming. The suit prepared under the direction of state attorney general Bill Lockyer, claims GM, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Chrysler, and Nissan vehicles "are among the world's largest contributors" to global warming because of their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses and that global warming has "already injured California, its environment, its economy, and the health and well being of its citizens."

The 15-page suit is filled with facts and figures, and it points a damning finger at the six defendants. Their products are allegedly responsible for emitting 289 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, 92% of the light vehicle sector emissions in the U.S. and 30% of the carbon dioxide emissions in California.

Only problem is, this is far from an open-and-shut case. The fact that burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is beyond dispute; so is the fact that our industrialized societies are pumping more and more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But is the planet getting catastrophically warmer? And are just automakers to blame?

The answer to the first question is we don't really know.The earth's autosphere has gotten warmer than it's been for the past 2oo year and now seems to be warmer than it's been for the past 20 million years. However, look at 50-million-year spans, say some scientists, and it's still cooler than it's ever been. So what's the correct temperature for the atmosphere? That's something no one can say with any certainty.

The second question reveals what a cynical piece of political grandstanding this suit actually is. If automobiles are to blame for global warming, surely all automakers should be sued, not just the six biggest and- dare I say- richest? And if carbon dioxide is causing such problems in California, then the state government should also sue the people responsible for 70% of carbon dioxide emissions it says comes from sources other than GM, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Chrysler, and Nissan vehicles: the people who make everything from power stations to airplanes to buses to leaf blowers, for instance.

We can all play the blame game. How about suing the California government for failing to provide Los Angeles with a decent public transport system and further entrenching the citizens overwhelming dependence on the automobile by constructing a massive freeway network? This is the same government, by the way, that encouraged three of the defendants-Toyota, Honda, and Nissan- to establish their national headquarters in California and been quite happy to hold its hand out for taxes paid by activities it now says have injured its citizens.

The reason for the lawsuit, of course, is that California wants to force automakers to build cars and trucks with dramatically lower emissions. Now, the only way to reduce carbon-dioxide-emissions is to build very fuel-efficient vehicles. Nothing wrong with that, only automakers-rightly-insist that American consumers show little interest in buying fuel-efficient vehicles. Even at three bucks a gallon, American gas is still relatively cheap by world standards, and once consumers have gotten used to the idea, they'll drift back to buying cars and trucks with big engines.

America currently produces more carbon dioxide per capita than any other nation on earth and ought to show leadership in finding ways to reduce carbon-dioxide-emissions, not the least because it'll also reduce our dependence on foreign oil. But that won't happen unless we're all prepared to shoulder some of the responsibility for being leaner and greener (be honest, did you really need to run your air conditioner all summer?)

By suing GM, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Chrysler, and Nissan, the California government allows us all to say, hand on heart, "Hey, global warmings not my fault." As I said, only in America.