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| Freedom from Oil activist 'greenwashes' a GM hummer at the LA autoshow, January 2007. |
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1. CHANGE IS POSSIBLE, BUT THE AUTO INDUSTRY'S WILL IS LACKING
American cars now get fewer miles per gallon than they did 20 years ago. The industry has the technology and knowhow to increase fuel economy to 50 mpg by 2010 and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2020. But companies lack the will to innovate. Industry leaders like Ford and GM should commit to doing everything they can to break our addiction to oil.
2. OIL ADDICTION FUELS GLOBAL WARMING
The world's climatologists agree: the global climate is changing faster than it has in millions of years, and our reliance on fossil fuels is largely to blame. The threats posed by global warming are terrifying. Over the next few decades, we can expect rising global temperatures, an increase in floods, droughts, and wildfires, intensified hurricanes, heat waves, the spread of infectious diseases, and species extinction. For every 3.6 degrees F rise in temperature, plants will have to shift 200 miles away from the equator to adapt. This will wreak havoc on rainforest ecosystems, which are already under pressure from increasing wildfires and severe weather. The auto industry should take responsibility for its disproportionate share of global warming pollution and clean up its vehicles.
3. OIL ADDICTION ERODES OUR NATIONAL SECURITY
The U.S. imports 55 percent of its oil, much of it from unstable nations such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Colombia. By 2025, we will depend on other countries for 68 percent of our oil. The outdated gas-guzzlers that carmakers produce help push the U.S. into conflicts around the world, most recently in Iraq. U.S. demand for oil has helped prop up dictators and fund repressive regimes such as the Saudi royal family. Ask the auto industry: Does our addiction to oil makes us more safe, or less?
4. GAS-GUZZLING VEHICLES FUEL HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES
Oil exploration has led to human rights violations around the world. Human rights groups estimate that in the last 10 years military factions acting on behalf of multinational oil companies have killed more than 2,000 people in the Niger Delta. In the Indonesian province of Aceh, ExxonMobil has provided crucial logistical support to the Indonesian army, which has tortured, kidnapped and killed community activists on or near its drilling site. In Colombia, the U.S. government is paying $98 million to the Colombian military to guard an oil pipeline owned by Occidental Petroleum; the units charged with guarding the pipeline have participated in the killing of 18 innocent civilians, and have yet to be held accountable for those crimes. The auto industry will be complicit in these abuses until it gets the petroleum monkey off our backs.
5. OIL ADDICTION DRIVES RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION
Rainforests are home to half of the plant and animal species on the planet. Each day, 214,000 acres of rainforests are destroyed. One major cause of this destruction is the global demand for oil. Road building into forested areas causes ecosystem fragmentation, air pollution, runoff, and erosion. Loud noises produced by trucks and drills frighten sensitive wildlife. In Ecuador, Texaco's oil practices between 1971-1991 resulted in the deforestation of two million acres of rainforest, the spilling of 16.8 million gallons of crude oil, and the dumping of 4.3 million gallons of known carcinogens and other toxic waste. This case is by no means isolated. Oil companies around the world continue to profit at the expense of the rainforests and indigenous peoples.
6. POLLUTING VEHICLES JEOPARDIZE PUBLIC HEALTH
More than 118 million Americans live in cities that exceed current federal health guidelines for air quality— mostly because of pollution from our cars and trucks. This pollution—an unwanted gift carmakers—has a disproportionate impact on America's children, elderly, low-income families, and people of color. Children in high-ozone communities develop asthma at a rate three times higher than those in low-ozone communities, and women exposed to high levels of ozone and carbon monoxide are three times more likely to have babies with defective heart valves. Our cars' unnecessary pollution is chocking us to death.
7. GAS-GUZZLING HURTS THE ECONOMY AND WORKING FAMILIES
Addiction to oil is bad news for the economy. In the past 30 years, U.S. consumers have transferred trillions of dollars to oil-exporting countries. Since just 2002, the US has increased its oil imports by 9%, or nearly 1 million barrells per day. Failure to implement new technology threatens the vitality of America's auto industry, putting thousands of jobs at risk. Higher fuel economy will not only safeguard existing jobs, but create approximately 47,000 new jobs in the auto industry. The livelihoods of thousands of families depend on carmakers moving back to the cutting edge.
8. FUEL-EFFICIENT VEHICLES WILL SAVE CONSUMERS MONEY
Drivers feel the economic burden of their old-fashioned vehicles every time they go to the pump. Each year consumers spend $186 billion on gasoline for their cars and trucks. A fleet of automobiles that takes advantage of hybrid and other workable technologies could reach 60 mpg. This would save individuals an average of $5,500 in fuel during the lifetime of the vehicle. Improving our cars' fuel efficiency would be a victory for families' overstretched budgets.
9. THE AUTO INDUSTRY HAS CLEAR ALTERNATIVES
Building a clean energy economy is not rocket science. Workable alternatives to the carbon economy exist, but carmakers have recklessly refused to take advantage of them. If the auto industry were to put off-the-shelf technologies into its vehicles today, it could increase average fuel efficiency to 40 mpg. If the industry converted its entire fleet of new vehicles to gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, it could give consumers 60 mpg. Hydrogen fuels and electric vehicles charged with wind or solar power offer to completely eliminate tailpipe emissions. The U.S. government wastes $20 billion a year subsidizing fossil fuels. If that money were invested in clean energy, carmakers would have new incentives to kick the petroleum habit.
10. A CLEAN ENERGY FUTURE WILL BENEFIT THE AUTO INDUSTRY
Japanese automakers lead American companies in the development of clean auto technologies. In recent years, investors have become increasingly wary of investing in products that are connected with global warming pollution and oil dependence. Insurance companies are also starting to question companies about their plans to deal with global warming. In the future, companies' failure to deal with their greenhouse gas emissions could hurt them because of increased insurance coverage costs or the inability to obtain coverage. If Detroit doesn't want to go the way of the dinosaurs, it should invest in the clean energy future we all know is coming.
To get involved in the campaign for cleaner cars, Contact 800-497-1994 or email cleancars@globalexchange.org
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