Oh GM, this is why you can’t have nice things….like an attractive balance sheet.
General Motors Corp Vice Chairman Bob Lutz has defended remarks he made dismissing global warming as a “total crock of shit,” saying his views had no bearing on GM’s commitment to build environmentally friendly vehicles.
Sure thing Lutz, that liquid falling on the rest of the world from your office window is fertilizer. Really it is.
All gags aside, it’s amazing that there are still people out there who doubt the credibility of the droves upon droves of scientists and experimental proof worldwide that global warming and climate change are real, extant problems. Then again, it’s not so amazing when those same doubters are often paid to to be doubters. It can’t be reality if I’m paid to think it’s not, can it?
And yes, that sentiment applies to people in Congress as well. I suppose I should have expected as much from General Motors, since they still haven’t shaken the sleep from their eyes to realize that the American people aren’t interested in gas guzzling SUVs anymore and they were the last ones at the fuel efficiency party. These are the same folks who throw more money at their marketing to tell the world they’re committed to environmentally friendly automobiles than they do at their research into the same topic. If it proves anything else, it should prove that companies – especially American automakers, since they seem to have the hardest time with this – put less importance on being green than they do on making everyone believe that they’re green. They’re almost as bad as the oil companies (have you seen the most recent Chevron commercials? Somebody get a shovel!), but it’s a hop, skip, and jump between their respective boardrooms, so there’s no surprise there either.
This is my favorite part though:
In a posting on his GM blog on Thursday, Lutz said those “spewing virtual vitriol” at him for minimizing the threat of climate change were “missing the big picture.”
“What they should be doing in earnest is forming opinions, not about me but about GM and what this company is doing that is … hugely beneficial to the causes they so enthusiastically claim to support,” he said in a posting titled, “Talk About a Crock.”
It’s funny that Lutz really believes that the “big picture” again has to do with his company. Sorry buddy, the “big picture” is about the health, sustainability, and future of our planet, not about your company and what remarkably little GM is doing to be an environmentally friendly automaker. The company is leaps and bounds behind (as has been the case in most areas for the past 20 years) its Japanese and foreign competitors in terms of environmental friendliness and willingness to include public desire for more fuel-efficient vehicles in its lineup.
It’s also entertaining that Lutz is more than willing to speak on behalf of GM when it pleases him, but when he says something that’s a little embarrassing, he’s willing to dangle the straw man of “don’t look at me! Look at the company!” out in force. Sorry Lutz, MBA 101 reminds you that your actions have a direct impact on the company you speak for, and you always speak for your company.
“My thoughts on what has or hasn’t been the cause of climate change have nothing to do with the decisions I make to advance the cause of General Motors,” he wrote.
This from the guy sitting at the company that gave us the Hummer. Credibility, anyone?
[ GM Exec Stands by Calling Global Warming a 'Crock' ]
Source: Planet Ark (courtesy of Truthout)