In 2006 California decided to file a lawsuit against the 6 largest car manufacturers in America, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, and Nissan. The complaint from California is, and I quote, "Vehicle emissions are the single most rapidly growing source of the carbon emissions contributing to global warming, yet the federal government and the automakers have refused to act." Ignoring the questionable existence of global warming, as that is a can of worms I don't want to open today, lets move right to the meat of the complaint.
Vehicle emissions may be the most rapidly growing, but cows are far more harmful. Cows are only responsible for about 9% of C02 emissions, but they are responsible for 37% of methane emissions and 65% of nitrous oxide, gasses that are 37 times and 296 times more harmful then Co2 respectively according to the UN news centre. And which state has the second highest cow population in the country? Why California of course, otherwise it would be completely irrelevant. Yes according to the crop profile from 2000 California was second in cattle just behind Wisconsin, and more recent data shows that the numbers have only gone up since then. So what action has California taken against Dairy farms? None at all.
Well back to the issue at hand. According to the lawsuit motor vehicles are responsible for 30% of California's Co2 emissions. Emissions that allegedly contribute to human induced global warming. I say allegedly because i am not entirely convinced on the issue of global warming in general, but that's not important at the moment. Some sorces speculate that the lawsuit may partially be in response to a lawsuit filed by the car companies to avoid compliance with a 2005 California emissions law that would tighten regulations on exhaust emissions. In the lawsuit California wants monetary compensation for the damage the emissions are doing to health economy and government. The AAM is calling it a nuisance suit and believes it will be dismissed.
How exactly is California claiming the emissions are effecting them? Well "Human-induced global warming has, among other things, reduced California's snow pack (a vital source of fresh water), caused an earlier melting of the snow pack, raised sea levels along California's coastline, increased ozone pollution in urban areas, [and] increased the threat of wildfires." The snow pack issues can be attributed to climate change, not necessarily global warming. In other words there is enough reasonable doubt to not blame the car companies alone. Same with the raised sea levels, and the forest fires. The urban area ozone pollution is the only reasonable accusation, and even that is not something you would file a lawsuit over, more of an issue to take up with the EPA, oh wait, California's sued them too. What for? Refusing to regulate greenhouse gasses. The EPA does regulate greenhouse gasses, apparently not to California's liking. Its like suing the fire department because you didn't like the manner in which they stopped your house from burning down.
California isn't helping its cause with these lawsuits either, if they really cared about the environment they'd let the car manufacturers and the EPA use the money that's being tied up in these pointless lawsuits to help regulate greenhouse gasses and develop more economical cars respectively. In conclusion, California, calm down, back off the lawsuit trigger, and let the car manufacturers and the EPA do their job. If you don't like the way the cars work, WALK! Its like watching an environmental soap opera, whats next? Is the oil industry going to turn out to be California's evil twin?
How exactly is California claiming the emissions are effecting them? Well "Human-induced global warming has, among other things, reduced California's snow pack (a vital source of fresh water), caused an earlier melting of the snow pack, raised sea levels along California's coastline, increased ozone pollution in urban areas, [and] increased the threat of wildfires." The snow pack issues can be attributed to climate change, not necessarily global warming. In other words there is enough reasonable doubt to not blame the car companies alone. Same with the raised sea levels, and the forest fires. The urban area ozone pollution is the only reasonable accusation, and even that is not something you would file a lawsuit over, more of an issue to take up with the EPA, oh wait, California's sued them too. What for? Refusing to regulate greenhouse gasses. The EPA does regulate greenhouse gasses, apparently not to California's liking. Its like suing the fire department because you didn't like the manner in which they stopped your house from burning down.
California isn't helping its cause with these lawsuits either, if they really cared about the environment they'd let the car manufacturers and the EPA use the money that's being tied up in these pointless lawsuits to help regulate greenhouse gasses and develop more economical cars respectively. In conclusion, California, calm down, back off the lawsuit trigger, and let the car manufacturers and the EPA do their job. If you don't like the way the cars work, WALK! Its like watching an environmental soap opera, whats next? Is the oil industry going to turn out to be California's evil twin?
No comments:
Post a Comment