Today, Newsweek landed in my mailbox. I was excited, but not just because I got mail. The cover story of this week is - Environment and Leadership: Who's the Greenest of Them All?
So, I'll spare you most of the story, because although it's interesting, you can read it here, and in all honesty you'll probably not be surprised if you've been staying up-to-date with the race. It does a good job of summarizing the three Presidential candidates' positions on the environment. My favorite part: no matter what happens, next year the policy in the White House will be different.
The worst about this article though was the ad in the middle and the statistics. First the ad - for a hybrid Chevy Tahoe, "America's first full-size hybrid SUV." Oh yay! It gets 14mpg in the city and a whopping 20 on the highway. Are we seriously celebrating this? This is why the United States has this problem in the first place. You don't see SUVs, hybrid or not, in Europe. It's time for smaller cars.
The second thing that got to me was the stats. Newsweek cited that "The environment has emerged as a leading concern. Last year, three in 10 voters said they cared about the issue, up from 11 percent in 2005." As much as I'm excited that the number grew from the measly 11%, 30 isn't really amazing. Do we not realize that without the environment we couldn't live?
How can we seriously expect a change in the public's perception of the environment when we're selling hybrid SUVs that get worse gas mileage than most sedans? How much harm do you think the next 9 months will have on the environment until we get a new set of ideas in DC? And, realistically, how fast do you expect any action to happen?
Just some thoughts, feel free to weigh in and ask questions of your own!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Race to Be Green: 2008
Labels:
2008 Presidential Race,
climate change,
environment
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comments:
Wow, 14 mpg in the city and 20 on the highway? That is terrible! It looks like they added hybrid technology just so they could stamp the word hybrid on it, sell it for more, and convince ignorant consumers that they are doing something good for the environment and saving gas money.
But in response to your question...I think change will happen a lot slower than we'd like. America is still rife with climate change skeptics and people who believe that traditional economic growth is more important than our health and the health of the environment. On the bright side, great leaps have been taken over the past few decades, so positive change will occur...we will just have to be patient. Take a look at some of the things going on in Oregon, Washington state, and Vermont if you get disheartened. Progress is out there...
Post a Comment