A September/October 1977 Mother Jones article by Mark Dowie noted "For seven years the Ford Motor Company sold [Pinto] cars in which it knew hundreds of people would needlessly burn to death." An October 17, 2008, The Spokesman-Review article "The Pinto Memo: ‘It’s Cheaper to let them Burn!’" added "Critics argued that because the Pinto did not have a true rear bumper or adequate reinforcement between the rear panel and the fuel tank, it was an exploding accordion waiting to compress." and "Adding to the fun, the Pinto’s doors also lacked stable reinforcement, meaning that they could crumple and jam shut, drawing the fiery coffin routine to a close." The article ends with "The general public came up with the unofficial Pinto slogan, 'the barbecue that seats four.'" The sad reality is, after looking at top-rated and eco-centered universities, colleges, and programs in the U. S., U. K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, nothing explains the climate emergency as well as the Ford Pinto.
In other words, don't expect U. S. corporate leadership to help the most vulnerable when short-term money is at stake. It's great dutchnews.nl reported May 26 "[Shell] oil company is required to reduce the carbon dioxide emitted by the Shell group and its customers by 45% net by the end of 2030, compared with the level in 2019." and many other sources reported the story. However, as I wrote before, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research) said in a May 4th, 2018 video that has been removed "The CEO of Shell once told me 'The climate problem is real but it is completely intractable. You can not solve it. So, let's get rich quick before the world ends, huh?'"
While big oil and U. S. corporate leadership have been obstacles to solutions, I similarly wrote about apathetic political leaders and some students. In my April 22 post "Documenting a Vanishing Pacific Northwest Ecosystem and Culture" I wrote "the INDC (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) agreed to in Paris in 2016 of 3.5° C (6.3° F) over pre-industrial levels are insanely irresponsible to present and future generations of all species" and "Robert Wilson’s essay 'Will the end of the world be on the final exam?' in the book Teaching Climate Change in the Humanities [mentions] One of Wilson’s 'teaching assistants [led] a discussion section about climate change: ‘My soul is crushed’ she began. ‘I thought we were going to have this fabulous conversation about framing arguments, the role of science, finding allies and figuring out how to effectively communicate [climate science to the public]. The class – and I don’t just mean two or three vocal people – basically came up with this: all of Bangladesh could die, the temperature could increase six degrees, tons of species could die, and people in other places could suffer from drinking water and crop shortages, and we wouldn’t care at all [ . . . . ]’” I added, "This means in addition to making fossil fuel companies pay for mitigation and adaptation, and colleges/universities and pension funds divest, we must also find ways to increase capacity for caring in developed nations before many more human and nonhuman inhabitants globally will be forced to migrate and/or die early and awfully."
My previous post was "Kevin Anderson Hits the Target About Academics 'Running Scared.'"
Dowie's 1977 Mother Jones article includes a story based on "police reports" about a woman burned to death, and boy "badly burned," after the Ford Pinto they were in "exploded in a ball of fire." The article noted Ford engineer Lou Tubben tried to prevent this. His "presentation on safer tank design [ . . . . ] invited all company engineers and key production planning personnel [but] When time came for the meeting, a grand total of two people showed up—Lou Tubben and his boss." Sound familiar?
The article cites an anonymous Ford engineer, "there are a few of us here at Ford who are concerned about fire safety. [ . . . ] They are mostly engineers who have to study a lot of accident reports and look at pictures of burned people." Later, the article asks "Ever wonder what your life is worth in dollars? Perhaps $10 million? Ford has a better idea: $200,000 [in 1977]." As I wrote before, the number is much lower for future climate victims. "As noted elsewhere, 'Dr. Ramanathan said it would take $450 per person per year in the top one billion people to change from our carbon economy to renewables' saving over 3 billion people that may otherwise die from exposure to 130 degree plus heat 35 years from now if humans fail to convert energy sources from coal and fossil fuels to 'solar, wind, hydro, and possibly nuclear. [ . . . . ]'"
Dowie's 1977 Mother Jones article ends "One wonders how long the Ford Motor Company would continue to market lethal cars were Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca serving 20-year terms in Leavenworth for consumer homicide." Similarly, one wonders how long big oil executives would continue to destroy coral reefs, rainforests, and human and nonhuman health, and threaten future humans with catastrophic sea rise and tropical heat, if the most guilty were tried, convicted, and sentenced for "ecocide," with a statue of limitations of 1,000 years, in The International Criminal Court in The Hague. While the U.S., China, and India are not members, corporations and politicians in those countries could be affected when operating in member areas. For a moment I forgot, according to Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of "TIME TO WAKE UP" fame, oil companies own a significant part of the U. S. Congress. Whitehouse said "The International Monetary Fund [ . . . ] with no apparent conflict of interest, put the subsidy to fossil fuel each year in the United States at 700 billion dollars. [ . . . ] To protect a prize like that, an industry can put up a lot of front groups, and spend a lot of that Citizens United unlimited money."
George Clooney said the Ford Pinto case inspired the film Michael Clayton. Clooney said "That ['internal document'] got into the hands of a judge. And he said, 'Okay, now you're all dead.' And everybody was fired. And huge, huge class-action suit." What happened when big oil was similarly caught? Not much. At least, not yet. Bill McKibben wrote at The Guardian October 14, 2015 "To understand the treachery – the sheer, profound, and I think unparalleled evil – of Exxon, one must remember the timing. Global warming became a public topic in 1988 [ . . . . ] No corporation has ever done anything this big and this bad."
Regarding climate-related films, I saw Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet starring David Attenborough and Johan Rockström. In the June 2021 documentary Rockström said "[. . . ] perhaps the most dire message to humanity is [ . . .] we have, in just 50 years, managed to push ourselves outside of a state that we've been in for the past 10,000 years. Are we at risk of destabilizing the whole planet?" Agreeing with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, in Rockström's sentence I would change "we have" to "big oil companies have." My point is big oil companies must be forced to act by national and/or international laws for information in the documentary to matter. In simple terms, otherwise it will be like an honors student at the school bus stop pounded unconscious by an illiterate bully with no parents, caring adults, or police officers in sight.
Later in the documentary Rockström explains the danger of climate "tipping points" "[ is . . .] once you've pressed the on button, you can not stop it. [ . . . .] It's not like you could say 'Oops, now I realize I didn't want to melt the Greenland Ice Sheet. [ . . .] Then, it's too late [for many coastal cities . . . . ]" On a more positive note, I enjoyed his fishing scenes but shared the grief of loss of large fish in the Baltic Sea. I respected Terry Hughes for his willingness to bring his whole self to the film, even to the point of uncontrollable grief stopping him from talking about coral bleaching of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. I have written about other climate scientists showing similar honest emotions, and Australia’s 2019-2020 fires in the film that killed or destroyed habitat for nearly three billion animals. At the end of the last item, I wrote "I recall in the film I Am, the Dalai Lama said the most important meditation of our time is critical thinking followed by action."
In better news, Hawaii declared a climate emergency April 29, and I expect many other states to follow. States have been too slow to act, but better late than never as each species/place that can be saved matters.
Continuing that "emergency" theme, I'm grateful the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) accepted my short fiction for their “Quick Fictions” episode in honor of EcoCast’s first birthday July, 2021. That piece was inspired by friend and longtime Tradewinds captain of the Debbie Lynn, Bill Wagner, formerly of Depoe Bay, Oregon. Bill told me a background story about his near-death at sea after, at age 26 in 1989, I challenged a big oil rep in the Spouting Horn Restaurant who was asking locals to support drilling off the central Oregon coast. I later wrote The City of Depoe Bay’s Memorial Against Offshore Oil Drilling to the Oregon Governor’s Ocean Resources Management Task Force to help stop all oil rigs off the Oregon Coast. It is the one thing I am most proud of in my life, even more than the big halibut and salmon I caught in Alaska and Oregon. Since then, I discovered there are those who live in the truth, and those who don't. When meeting those who don't, keep rowing.
