• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Pratap Ravindran

GM vehicles alone account for about 1.65 per cent of world carbon emissions — a substantial amount for a single company.

PUNE, Jan. 4

CAN there be anything more absurd than an adolescent, all adipose and attitude, gunning the motor of a hulking off-roader ....at a traffic light in a big city? Strangely enough, there can....which is why CorpWatch has given the Greenwash Award this time around to Saturn and its parent outfit, General Motors, for coming out with an ad that depicts its Saturn VUE as a vehicle which is "at home in almost any environment".

According to Mr Kenny Bruno, the CorpWatch greenwash guru, this award has never been given for "simple environmental image ads by auto companies".

"TV and print ads have so many examples of gas guzzling, unsafe cars incongruously pictured in dramatic natural landscapes that these ads are usually not original enough to deserve an award. But the depiction of an SUV on what looks to be a melting polar ice floe in the company of wildlife is either so ironic, so arrogant or so ignorant (it's hard to tell which), that we have made an exception and given this Greenwash Award to Saturn and its parent company, GM."

Mr Bruno went on to wonder aloud whether Saturn/GM executives are so busy they have never heard of global warming or climate change. Or could it be that they believe that what's good for GM is good for the environment, and vice versa. "Saturn/GM executives have a macabre sense of humour, and derive amusement from rubbing our noses in the degradation of the planet they help cause. Saturn/GM executives are living on Saturn..."

Mr Bruno's rage has been triggered off by the fact that SUVs are one of the causes of global warming and, therefore, of the melting polar ice that threatens many of the species pictured in the Saturn VUE ad. The US accounts for 25 per cent of global carbon emissions, the largest greenhouse gas and most important cause of climate change. Of that, 25 per cent or about one-third is caused by the transportation sector. Cars and light trucks make up 62 per cent of the transportation-related emissions. And so cars and light trucks make up roughly 20 per cent of all US carbon emissions — about 5 per cent of the world's total.

According to Mr Bruno, US cars and light trucks alone emit more carbon than all sources from the entire nation of India, a country which auto executives are quick to point to in the debate over whether to limit emissions. GM vehicles alone account for about 1.65 per cent of world carbon emissions — a substantial amount for a single company.

"It would be bad enough for the climate if GM simply made the most cars in the world (which it does). But, like the other major automakers, it has increased its output of SUVs in the 14 years since global warming was recognised as a serious environmental threat. As a result, the fuel efficiency of GM vehicles went down during the 1990s, and the company's burden on the climate increased. The Saturn VUE's fuel efficiency is not as bad as some SUVs , but GM's record as a whole gives it one of the biggest impacts on the climate of any company in the world." This impact, as it happens, is especially pronounced in the polar regions.

As the US Environmental Protection Agency has reported, "climate models indicate that global warming will be felt most acutely at high latitudes, especially in the Arctic where reductions in sea ice and snow cover are expected to lead to the greatest relative temperature increases."

Further, the agency has pointed out that these changes are already under way. Arctic temperatures are the warmest in 400 years. Snow cover has decreased 10 per cent since the late 1960s. Alaska has warmed by an average of four degrees Fahrenheit since the 1950s, leading some glaciers to recede and thin.

These changes seem to be linked to declining health of polar bears as earlier spring ice break-up leaves less time for them to hunt seals. Increased precipitation and deeper snow pack due to climate change is also a likely culprit in the decline of caribou in Alaska. Some Alaskan native communities are dependent on these caribou herds for their survival and their way of life.

In the Antarctic, researchers have linked global warming and related snow and ice patterns to a decline of penguin populations. Mr Bruno states: "That is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, in terms of the mountain of evidence linking global warming and the decline of the wildlife depicted in the Saturn VUE ad.

"At home in any environment? In a twisted way, there is truth to the ad. While you won't find many SUVs from GM or any other company on ice floes in the far north, through their carbon emissions, they are symbolically present everywhere on earth. Even, especially in the environmentally sensitive polar regions. Saturn and its parent company GM are indeed connected to the ice packs and wildlife of the far north, but it's not a connection they should be proud of."

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail
Comment on this article to BLFeedback@thehindu.co.in

Stories in this Section
Cheque bouncing: HC allows appeal against conviction

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line