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Environment

GM's Dark Ages Approach to Global Warming

By Laurie David, Huffington Post. Posted February 28, 2008.


GM's vice chairman's stance on global warming could explain why the company is doing so dismally.
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General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz recently called global warming a "total crock of s--t." So much for intelligent leadership, but thanks for giving America a clear explanation of why your company is struggling with daily layoffs and market share implosion. Why does GM keep someone around who's still stuck in the dark ages while everyone else -- including its competition -- has woken up to the threat of global warming and its impact on their customers?

Lutz stands by the remark despite widespread criticism, but says it's not about what he thinks, it's about what the company is doing. Well let's reflect for a second on how GM is doing under the likes of his pig brain leadership. Not too well. If you're the guy who makes the same old inefficient product, and everyone is lining up for the competition's cutting edge technology, then wouldn't you want to improve as quickly as possible?

Apple didn't keep making first generation iPods, they continuously improved to stay competitive and keep their customers happy. It is exactly the kind of arrogance displayed by Lutz that has practically sunk his company, which continues outsourcing its once proud factories and American jobs, and still can't remain competitive against Toyota and others.

How embarrassing for the Board of Directors and shareholders that the company's product development "leader" is so far behind the science, public opinion and the competition's pace in developing the next generation of efficient vehicles. Can someone explain why GM keeps this guy around? If your head is stuck in cement, how is that going to inspire anybody?

Maybe it's time for a change. It's hard to imagine this is what's best for GM and it's definitely not what's best for America.

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Global Warming.
Posted by: dsm3580 on Feb 28, 2008 5:51 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think he means that its a crock of s_ _t in terms of the argument that it is man made, and not the cause of something beyond our control, such as the variables of solar activity. The North American continent has the most snow cover in the past 50 years, and The Hadley Centre, NASA, and other scientific research groups just came out with new worldwide temperature data showing that all of the temperature gains of the past 100 years have been virtually wiped away.
It may very well be that we are turning out to be the pinheads for putting stock in a still unproven theory.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: Global Warming. Posted by: Salty_Dog
I question Lutz's judgement
Posted by: dobermanmacleod on Feb 28, 2008 10:41 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that global warming is happening. Their three key conclusions are:

It is "unequivocal" that global warming is occurring.

The probability this is caused by natural climatic processes is less than 5%.

The probability this is caused by human emissions is over 90%.

Frankly, Mr Lutz's denial of scientific fact shows his bad judgement. I wonder what other blunders his bad judgement has caused at GM?

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dsm3580 is too young to know how much it used to snow.
Posted by: AsteroidMiner on Feb 29, 2008 3:43 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Anthropic [human caused] Global Warming [AGW] began 200 years ago. We are
talking about CLIMATE, NOT WEATHER. In the 1950s and 1960s in my
home town in western New York state, it snowed 450 inches per year. Now it
snows only 96 inches per year. That is an average over at least a decade. In the
mid 19th century, the Mississippi river froze over in the winter so you could drive
on it at St. Louis. That's how St Louis became known as the gateway to the west.
Now the Mississippi river is ice-free at Davenport, Iowa, in most years. Hurricane
season starts in spring now. Hurricane season used to start in the fall. The
hurricanes are bigger now than ever before.

Great damage has been done, but we still have 8 years before natural positive
feedbacks lead to our extinction. Sea level will continue to rise even if we
disappear right now, but that is "minor" compared to poison gas bubbling out of
the ocean and killing almost everything including all of the people.
See the chart on page 274 of "Six Degrees" by Mark Lynas. We have until 2015
to BEGIN REDUCING our total CO2 output and we have until 2050 to actually
reduce our CO2 output by 90%. The curve has to start down by 2015, not we
have to think about it by then. The peak of our CO2 production has to happen in
the next 8 years.

If we don't follow the schedule in Six Degrees, we will encounter positive
feedbacks which will take the control of the climate out of our hands.
Preventing the fall of civilization is a daunting task, but not yet impossible. We
have to hold the CO2 level to 400 parts per million to have a 75% chance of
avoiding the positive feedbacks. The natural positive feedbacks are explained in
Six Degrees. We have to deal with enormous changes in where agriculture works
because of climate changes that are already unavoidable.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» ask an inuit Posted by: KaptainSpiffy
If you want to choose a longer lasting car next time, read:
Posted by: AsteroidMiner on Feb 29, 2008 4:03 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you want to choose a longer lasting car next time, read: "How to
Tell Which New Car Will Last Longer"
I found this book, which is downloadable from:
http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/ebook/225201-ebook.htm

"How to Tell Which New Car Will Last Longer" does what the
title says. It tells you what to do and what not to do in choosing a
car or truck if you want your next car to go a lot farther than
100,000 miles. Some trucks go well past 1 Million miles without
an overhaul. It is assumed that you will maintain your car or
truck "by the book," which means by the owner's manual. "How
to Tell Which New Car Will Last Longer" is not about
maintenance. It would be easy for the engineers to design a car
that, on the average, would go a million miles. "How to Tell
Which New Car Will Last Longer" explains how the customers
can force car companies to make million mile cars and why it
doesn't happen now. "How to Tell Which New Car Will Last
Longer" will keep you from making a lot of mistakes based on
popular but wrong ideas about cars and trucks. Before now, the
factories were able to force you to buy a new vehicle on their
schedule. They did this by making sure the vehicle wouldn't last
longer than they wanted it to. They fooled you into making the
worst possible decision. You can change this. The first step is to
read "How to Tell Which New Car Will Last Longer". Really
drive down the cost of driving! More reliable, more dependable
and more durable cars are much less expensive to drive, are less
aggravating, and are easier to fix. They don't cost more.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Brakes on 04 Toyota Tundra
Posted by: AsteroidMiner on Feb 29, 2008 4:19 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Slack adjusters are those components that adjust or "take up" the
brakes automatically on most cars and trucks. Some big trucks
do not have slack adjusters. Most cars have "back up and stop"
slack adjusters on their brakes. The 04 Toyota Tundra has "put
on the parking brake" slack adjusters on the brakes. The slack
adjusters don't work on my 04 Tundra. The brakes have to be
adjusted by hand every 10,000 miles. Putting on the parking
brake 3 times every engine start rather than just once doesn't even
work. Toyota dealer mechanics can't find anything wrong. Part
numbers involved:
47460(RH)
47470(LH)
47633C(RH)
47634A(LH)
47623A
47628
47603F
47601(RH)
47602(LH)
47601C
47643A(RH)
47644A(LH)
47601E
47430G
47616(RH)
47619(LH)
I have reported this to nhtsa.dot.gov.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Again: Cars are NOT the #1 source of CO2
Posted by: AsteroidMiner on Feb 29, 2008 4:23 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As I have told you before, the #1 carbon dioxide emitter is coal
fired power plants. How do coal fired power plants get ahead
of transportation [cars and other vehicles] in carbon emissions?
Gasoline, diesel fuel, etc. are half hydrogen. For example, octane
is C8H18. To figure out what fraction of the energy is from
burning the carbon, you have to look up the heat of formation of
carbon dioxide and the heat of formation of water. It takes 1
carbon to make one CO2, but it takes 2 hydrogens to make 1 H2O.
You can do the arithmetic and apportion the energy between the
carbon and the hydrogen. You have to subtract the energy
required to break down the octane into atoms. It is easier to
remove the hydrogens than it is to separate the carbons, so the
energy subtracted gets apportioned too.
Coal is almost pure carbon, except for the URANIUM,
ARSENIC, LEAD, MERCURY, Antimony, Cobalt, Nickel,
Copper, Selenium, Barium, Fluorine, Silver, Beryllium, Iron,
Sulfur, Boron, Titanium, Cadmium, Magnesium, Calcium,
Manganese, Vanadium, Chlorine, Aluminum, Chromium,
Molybdenum and Zinc that are coal's impurities. Even though
transportation uses more energy, coal fired power plants put more
CO2 into the air.

Transportation isn't even the second largest CO2 emitter.
Industrial processes are. The largest CO2 emitter of the industrial
processes is concrete making even though the energy used is less.
The first step in concrete making is heating limestone [calcium
carbonate] to drive off the carbon dioxide to make calcium oxide.
Coal is burned to make the heat, but the limestone is the greater
source of CO2. Other industrial processes include steel making,
metal casting, etc.

The easiest way to make the biggest reduction in CO2 emissions
is to convert all coal fired power plants to nuclear. So get over
your paranoid fears of all things nuclear and get it done.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

GM's greatest crime ever
Posted by: twoten on Mar 3, 2008 6:33 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
While watching "Who Killed The Electric Car" I jumped upright at a small little side point that only lasted for 20 seconds of screen time. The frame showed hundreds of electric trolley cars all stacked up in a trash heap.

The audio explained that in the 1940's, GM bought up all the electric mass transit vehicles in the US and destroyed them. So that their diesel machines would become dominant.

How many trillions of tons of co2 went into the atmosphere because of that move? How many people died of lung decease? GM is a bunch of evil devils, their crimes against the planet cannot be excused because they now make a few hybrid SUV's.

It amazes me that gun crazy Americans do nothing to stop these demons. They shoot up school rooms full of children but it's never occurred to them to take out a boardroom of psychopaths.

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JTLavery
Posted by: JTLavery on Mar 4, 2008 1:22 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
While it probably isn't wise for Mr. Lutz to talk the way he did, he is mostly correct. Global Warming is occurring, but man has had VERY LITTLE effect on it. If not for Global Warming, wouldn't we still be in the ICE AGE? If not for Global Warming, glaicers wouldn't be melting providing pure water for the majority of the worlds population, but WarMOngers only want to talk about melting glaciers and ice caps, they never mention that we only monitor/measure less than 5% of ALL glaciers, and of those we do monitor and measure, just as many are GROWING. The WarMongers talk about the THOUSANDS of tons of CO2 generated by mankind (what they really mean is the USA), but they NEVER mention that CO2 is less than half of ONE PERCENT of the atmosphere, and that fraction hasn't changed (significantly) in the last 100 years. They also won't mention that plants, which thrive in CO2 rich environment and produce OXYGEN, would thrive most in an enviroment of 17% CO2. I would be glad to DISCUSS this with anyone, but usually the LEFTIES/WarMongers don't want discussion, if you don't line up for their KOOL-AID your dismissed as an idiot. Don't confuse them with the FACTS, they don't care about the FACTS, this is really a guise for their true agenda, redistribution of wealth from the USA and EUROPE to the poor. Sign me Chill'in in Sunny Florida with my big Chevy AVALANCHE.

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Best for GM
Posted by: raywigton on Mar 4, 2008 7:58 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
GM was once a proud company, a great place to work and a world leader. The question should be what happened? As Toyota, Honda and other Japanese automakers become the world leaders we should ask ourselves what do they have that GM doesn't have? What chance does GM have when pig brains run the company? If they can't understand climate how could they possibly understand fuel efficiency?

We started loving Japanese cars during the Arab oil embargo of 75 when a gallon of gas rose to over $1.30. The main reason for Japanese cars was that they were getting much better mileage. GM responded with cars that got better mileage but after a few years they gave up on the economical cars. The Japanese never did.

It would seem to me that even if you didn't believe in science, even if you wanted to get on the net and talk trash; you should still understand that people don't want to spend all of their money on gas. If you can reach that level of understanding, then ask yourself what is the best thing for GM to do? Build greener cars or sit back and insult the science and the customer who does believe it?

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» RE: Best for GM Posted by: astron0t
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