Filed under: Hybrid, Hydrogen, GM
GM CEO responds to Lutz's global warming's a "total crock of sh*t" comment
Wall Street Journal blogs about GM CEO Rick Wagoner recent talk to reporters in Washington about GM chairman Bob Lutz's recent comment that global warming is "a total crock of sh*t." Wagoner backed away from the comment, saying that "the comments weren't coming out of the company" and "I would have preferred to pass on the comment." Wagoner didn't back away from Lutz, though, calling him "the clear leader of GM's push to develop extended-range battery-powered hybrid vehicles."
So, what does Wagoner think about global warming? Wagoner says "the data is pretty clear that the temperature on the earth is rising." Saying the globe is warming is quite different than saying humans are a significant contributer to that warming. The "non-confrontational" Wagoner, as the Journal describes him, has never said he believes in global warming or not (see 37 minutes into the video below the fold).
What's GM doing about global warming? Wagoner says "it makes sense for us to put the business in a place where can respond productively." Wagoner also says that "a lot of things need to be done to address CO2" and that GM is investing "a huge amount of money" to fulfill the company's responsibility as a big player in society. In the past Wagoner has said electric cars don't look like the answer but GM has come around to the idea.
[Source: Wall Street Journal]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
armmat 6:03PM (3/11/2008)
After all the evidence and good reasons to change...i.e. regardless of global warming, THEY STILL don't have the balls to just say we need to change and we can't wait.
But for you idiots who can't draw a line between to points, let me edumacate you.
A) Earth C02 cycle frequency (that has happened over and over and over again for MILLIONS of years): MEASURED IN 100,000's of thousands of years to reach current C02 levels. How do we know this? Fossil and plant studies conclusively confirm this. Maybe you stupid Ray Comfort's of the world won't believe this...tough shit.
B) CURRENT CLIMATE CHANGE TIMELINE: C02 levels have risen to levels 3/4 of what "02 to C02" switchover levels need to reach in only about 2 centuries...exactly at the start of the industrial age....
Now for the really stupid and dense idiots here...what does that mean? It means this isn't a natural phenomenon...
Now put down your bibles and stop banging your heads against walls...it ain't good for you brains.
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GenWaylaid 9:18PM (3/11/2008)
This is why I will never make a CEO salary. I can hold actual opinions.
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mike baz 11:10PM (3/11/2008)
Armmat - for us great unwashed idiots out there who still believe global warming is something the elite cooked up to put one more control mechanism over on us, explain this: Why are ice caps melting ... on Mars? Could it be Martians love their SUVs too:) But seriously people do your own research, and if big money is saying something is, then do a double take.
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meme 11:46PM (3/11/2008)
Hey, Mike:
http://www.daughtersoftiresias.org/greenwiki/Global_warming
Oh, and while you're at it:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=192
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Pete 1:03AM (3/12/2008)
In one form or another, every minute of our every day involves the emission of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas claimed to be the cause of climate change. Every moment we spend running our computers, lighting our homes, powering countless labor-saving appliances, driving to work or school or anywhere else--we are using industrial-scale energy to make our lives better.
In the name of 'saving the world' from unproven threats, activists want to impose a draconian regimen of taxes, laws, regulations and controls that would affect the minutest details of our existence. Their solution to their projected 'environmental disaster' is to impose an actual economic disaster by restricting the energy that powers our civilization and subjecting its use to severe political control.
Let us not allow panic over the exaggerated claims of climate alarmists to deliver us into the hands of would-be carbon dictators.
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armmat 3:27AM (3/12/2008)
MIKE BAZ:
First off...if the elite are making up global warming so as to reduce our emissions and improve our environment...you'd have to be a complete utter moron to complain about it.
Secondly, BIG MONEY isn't saying global warming exists...it's the SMALL scientists who are. Icecaps have been melting on Mars for thousands of years...not a couple of hundred. Do you have a concept of TIMELINE?
I suggest you heed your own recommendations...do some research for crying out loud and learn something.
Big money is claiming global warming...haha...what a laugh.
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Paul 4:29AM (3/12/2008)
Lutz is right on this one. I don't buy it. The world is getting warmer but there is a big leap from that to 'we're all at fault'.
Can't we all just get along? :-) I'm an ABG reader because I want to reduce the oil I use because A) it's expensive and B) i'm tired of sending that money to people that don't like us.
Don't worry I'll vote (D) this fall and I already switched out 100% of my house, almost 100 bulbs in all, to CFL's. Thats probably better than lots of people that believe the warming is caused by humans.
Same goals, different reasons.
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KarenRei 9:49AM (3/12/2008)
Hey Paul:
http://www.daughtersoftiresias.org/greenwiki/Global_warming
Right?
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psarhjinian 10:31AM (3/12/2008)
Paul & mike baz,
So, we don't know for certain, but there's a lot of evidence that says we probably are. Do you think it's a good idea to keep doing what we're doing on the off chance we might _not_ cause problematic climate change and/or a wars over depleting resources?
Why not, you know, play it safe and conserve now, even if we're not sure of the outcome, rather than wait until we're completely screwed. If you're right, you get to say "I told you so". If you're wrong, well, you'll live to see it.
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psarhjinian 10:42AM (3/12/2008)
@Paul,
Did you know that the US' largest source of oil is Canada, right? And while I can't say I'm a huge fan of Americans, I don't think that's really what you meant.
I never really understood the whole "foreign oil" thing that people are concerned about. The environment doesn't respect national borders, and increasingly, the economy doesn't, either. If North Korea or Iran developed clean cold fusion and sold power to the rest of the world, I'd personally write them a check for my share.
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kry350 4:11PM (3/12/2008)
OK, so the earth is warming. I think most people can see the trend (at least until Jan 08 came along). But I think the big question is why. From human activity or not? Assume that argument is done and it's because of humans. What part of human activity? Cars? Ships?
How about breathing?
We all breathe out CO2, right? Sure, trees and plants convert that CO2 to oxygen, but we're cutting down more and more plants to make room for ourselves as our population grows. The world population is going up about the same rate as CO2. So why isn't anyone talking about that? Just an honest question that has been bothering me for a while.
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mike baz 5:38PM (3/12/2008)
Ok Armmat, I'm going to repeat this extra slow for you this time.
The entire solar system is heating up:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/18/wsun18.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/18/ixnewstop.html
Why this hoax:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/04/eaclimate104.xml
And if you actually believe that the top 1% gives a hoot about you or the environment, then I can't help you.
fabricate problem - frighten population - suggest solution - make sure solution involves you gaining more power/control/money
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Chris M 2:54AM (3/13/2008)
mike baz: The "ice caps" on Mars are frozen carbon dioxide, also known as "dry ice". Mars has an orbital tilt like earth, thus has seasons. Where it is summer on Mars, the dry ice evaporates and the ice cap shrink, where it is winter on Mars the CO2 freezes and the ice cap grows. While one polar ice cap is shrinking the other is growing, but the overall Martian average annual temperature isn't changing one bit.
Earth is a different matter, the recorded worldwide annual average is increasing - not much, but cause for concern.
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Chris M 3:06AM (3/13/2008)
"fabricate problem - frighten population - suggest solution - make sure solution involves you gaining more power/control/money"? Sounds like the standard Bush administration tactics used for the past 6 years. It's also been used by other right-wing groups, but I'm really puzzled as to how efforts to conserve fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gasses could ever lead to "more power/control/money".
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kry350 10:06AM (3/13/2008)
OK, so maybe this answers my question. No one responds to my question about population increase... no money/control/power to be gained if the problem is just plain old human breathing, right? So it gets ignored.
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Lascelles Linton 11:53AM (3/13/2008)
kry350, You are absolutely correct that the best solution is lower population. No one wants to hear that because it feels like an infringement of human rights. A large part of this new, green movement is the inclusion of everyone, informing people of the problem and a focus on solutions. So, a hold your breath day like the world jump day that became popular would be a response to your question. The truth is, everyone is starting to wake up to our impact and are just trying to find out what's the least they can do to solve the problem. Even for people that believe completely in global warming, I bet they won't stop breeding and will just get a hybrid because the mileage is better anyway.
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mike baz 4:16PM (3/13/2008)
Chris M - to "solve" this fabricated problem, a new global tax on carbon is being suggested, with the super bureaucracy that goes with it (read a new unheard of until now level of control); As for the Bush administration repeatedly using "fabricate problem - frighten population - suggest solution - make sure solution involves you gaining more power/control/money", they've been masters at it, but look beyond the left/right illusion, it's all about control. Oil (distributed energy) is just one more form of control.
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emmer 9:46PM (3/14/2008)
To answer kry350 about why we it doesn't get mentioned that more humans = more CO2 being exhaled, remember that there has always been a natural carbon cycle. CO2 moves amongst trees, atmosphere, ocean, land, and yes, humans and every other species that respires. The difference here is that the carbon that has been "locked up" underground for millenia is being 'unlocked' at an extremely fast rate, like, scientifically speaking, a kazillion times faster than it would "normally" - because we are mining it and burning it. So, the oxygen-in-carbon dioxide-out respiration is just part of the background noise...the carbon that was already circulating.
You are quite right, however, to equate population growth with increases in CO2....just not that the respiration from that population adds a whole lot to global warming. It's that extra 3 billion in the next 50 years who will actually want some basic comforts in life that we should be nervous for.
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Bill 8:30PM (10/05/2008)
The original point of the story is that the CEO wouldn't support the statement of the vice Chairman, who obviously is now out of his element at age 75.
Attitudes and opinions such as his will help to ensure that the world's "largest" corporation continues it's slide to 4th, 5th or 6th place on the list of innovative automotive companies.
And the weak kneed reaction of the CEO doesn't bode well for someone entrusted to turn the company around...the latest in a long list.
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