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Stephen Colbert pushed GM’s Bob Lutz on his Global Warming denial views. And, he reasserted his rejection of that "CO2 theory", citing thousands of scientists as well.
Colbert: Why not just call this the Chevy-Gore? You don’t believe in Global Warming, do you? You’ve said that you don’t.
Lutz: I accept that the planet has heated.
But, like many noted scientists, I don’t believe in the CO2 theory.
GM engineers, scientists, and others who believe in the scientific method and working within reality must wince every time he speaks about Global Warming.
Colbert: It’s just sunspot activity.
Lutz: In the opinion of about 32,000 of the world’s leading scientists …
Lutz is simply a global warming denier, seizing on truthiness and propaganda to fit his weltaunschuang rather than dealing with facts and giving some respect to actual science. Let us be clear: 1: Solar radiation is NOT a driver of Global Warming, the numbers just don’t work. 2. The "32,000" is absurdity (to be polite, with the (vast) majority of signers only having bachelor’s degrees and no advanced studies. (On the "petition" that Lutz is referring to, see: here, here, here, etc …
To be honest, other than the GW denial, Putz held up well against the Colbert pressure and got in some good zingers. But, he really sold the car short. When Colbert was asking him whether the Volt would help him "get laid", Lutz said that it would probably change the nature of the women, to ‘nicer, without makeup, environmental types …’ And, o
And, he clearly understood that his Global Warming denialism wasn’t the best thing for him to talk about when he was on The Colbert Report to talk about the Chevy Volt which has had recent big news.
However, we have to get off this subject …
Yeah, Bob, reminding people that Lutz is such a Putz perhaps isn’t the best thing for GM’s image and marketing of a car designed to appeal to people concerned about global warming, peak oil, and a better future for America.
Josh Nelson has the low-down on GM executive political donations … anyone surprised to hear that they are tinged red, significantly?
Unfortunately, their political contributions indicate that their green talk on their website is nothing more than lip service. For decades they have been lining the pockets of politicians who actively work against fuel efficiency standards and investments in clean fuels. Here are their contributions to federal candidates over the past several cycles
The Green Miles has this recommendation for Bob Lutz:
Note to Bob for future reference – if you’re going to greenwash, it’s best not to come right out and deny the scientific consensus on global warming with a made-up number of people who believe in a kooky denial scheme. Kind of undercuts your alleged green credentials.
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He’s full of crappola. He could care less about global warming, because global warming means that he has to actually do something…He lives in a cushy world…another candidate for a golden parachute…what does he care…laughing all the way to the bank..Same old, same old. Just another lying crook.
And when did Inconvenient Truth come out?
What year did Gore tour the country talking about climate change?
Its like someone still talking about rotary dial phones…..
…not sure why this loser’s opinions on global warming matter. I mean, it’s not like he knows how to make cars that people want or even how to make money at making cars. in fact, his only qualification is that he employs good lobbyiests with which he bribes rethugs.
He’s a bald-faced, phony liar.
Is this his attempt to torpedo the Volt with the excuse of “there was no demand”, similar to the EV1?
I guess he can join Sarah Palin in the Flat Earth Society.
Yes, Sarah is a believer in the Flat Earth. She claims that on a clear day she can see Russia from her window. Well according to Google earth, her house in Wasilla is at least 600 miles from the Russian border, which because of the curvature of the Earth would make it impossible for her to see.
Unless of course the EARTH IS FLAT
Hi, just got in from canvassing,
Not sure it shouldn’t be Lutz-Inhoff,
Lutz favorite bird is probably an ostrich.
By the way couldn’t find their contributions to federal candidates
Digg it!
I don’t believe for a minute that he believes that stuff. He’s just using that to manipulate his position.
Liar.
I thought that it was from an island out there in the bering
Godwin’s Law should be amended to make it relevant to anybody talking about GM, and how eco-nerds invariably bring up the EV1, never mind that there are reasons not to believe that dreck from Chris Paine.
And for all you Prius owners, read this. Oh, and has it ever occurred to you guys that not everyone wants to drive a soulless Prius? I want a Camaro, and I always wanted one for the longest time. Killing muscle cars for hybrids will not make me a happy camper. Let me have my choice. And stop complaining about the EV1. Please, it’s getting beyond annoying.
I do too…I’ve always wanted one…but I want my children and grandchildren to have…air to breathe…and I don’t want them dying in oil wars for Bushco descendants.
Great post, A Siegel.
Probably not gonna help you sell your cars based on “green” technology, either!
There are rotary dial phones now? What will they think of next? The times they are a-changin’.
DO NOT GIVE GM…ONE SINGLE PENNY till this putz resigns with NO PLATINUM parachute…not a dime….by…by
It seems like with the Bush clan being so inbred they should all be sterile by now.
Not a dime. Hear, here.
They are working towards “one eye”…a monarchist physical trait. *g*
from americablog
Reader John writes:
How many times do we have to hear:
We don’t have ENOUGH MONEY to fix Social Security.
We don’t have ENOUGH MONEY to fix Medicare.
We don’t have ENOUGH MONEY to provide health care to ALL Americans.
We don’t have ENOUGH MONEY to help out Americans losing their homes.
We don’t have ENOUGH MONEY to help all our veterans returning from war.
We don’t have ENOUGH MONEY to rescue “no child left behind”.
BUT…
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out Bears Stearns.
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out AIG.
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to pay for an unnecessary TRILLION DOLLAR war.
When the LITTLE GUY needs help, they scornfully say, “GET A JOB!”
But when one of their BIG GUY CRONIES need a bailout, what do they say? SURE, NO PROBLEM. Where’s the checkbook?
“But what about the debt we’re leaving on the backs of our childen and their future?”
“Children? WHOSE Children? OUR children won’t have to pay for this. YOUR children will.”
The Republicans have had their hands in our pockets for well over 8 years.
Now they are robbing us blind IN BROAD DAYLIGHT and smiling about it!!!!
The Republicans have shown their true colors and now they expect us to vote them back into office?
What’s next? Should we bend over and spread ‘em? Oh, I’m sorry, but we’ve ALREADY DONE THAT!!
SEVERAL TIMES!!!
Vote for REAL change this November.
VOTE BLUE
Lutz is another ‘fortunate son’.
U.S. automakers won’t get serious about this until they are forced to by competition. Hopefully, the foreign manufacturers are not all so green-hostile.
Sorry about late to the party …
Lutz … really is a putz when it comes to Global Warming.
As a (very) senior exec in a major Corporation, one would think that he would have at least learned to not show his ignorance.
Lutz says that he accepts that the planet is heating up – what does he think is doing this – magic fairies – aliens – Ford Motor Company? He’s just plain dumb and greedy.
Ferrariman, that’s some weak shit you’re trying to peddle here… Please take your snake oil elsewhere…! Danke!
Lutz has his private jets (he was a pilot in the Marine Corps), believes lots of cars, was the key lead on many gas guzzling cars, etc … He certainly acts in accordance with an absolute belief that global warming isn’t real.
He speaks / writes as an Energy Hawk … desiring to cut the oil addiction. Wish he would shut up about Global Warming.
Is there a particular gun you’d like to have? I’m just curious as to whether there’s a connection.
All through KO and Rachel there were commercials PRO Surge….. asking viewers to call Obama and set him straight on just how outrageously the Surge has been….
Now back to your regular programming….
Actually, being openly ignorant is probably preferable to those who feign interest in green causes publicly while working privately to undermine them.
That is well said, LOL, thank you.
I’ve often described this as being part of the Global Warming Denial wing of the Flat Earth Society.
Good evening A Siegel, and thanks for this look.
I saw Colbert last night and was speechless.
This is a great view
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unvUBCJgQ5Q
I know and agree exactly with what you are saying…but, I think he just thinks that he should live now and get what he can….I don’t believe for a minute that he actually even considers global warming a threat, because it doesn’t affect him personally…that’s what I’m getting at. He’s just a greedy opportunist getting what he can, in his lifetime, with complete denial of consequences… Just a rich dude taking advantage…life’s a biatch and then you die…type of thing. *sshole.
Are you inferring a Freudian compensation scenario?
Be sure and write or call you local GM dealer and let them know you will not be purchasing a GM product until Lutz is gone. Detroit is trying to play catch up, to adjust to the “market” because there managment lacks vision and are just basically lazy.
Ah, but isn’t one of the best ‘muscle cars’ now 100% electric?
And, perhaps you find Prius soulless, but taste is individual, others find great joy in the Prius.
But, are all desires acceptable, to be filled? At what cost “muscle car” (or other things) is a legitimate discussion, no?
Name for his next car; the Chevy Hubris.
Well, he ascribes it to solar radiation in this video. As per the link I provided, this is not even possible as an explanatory factor based on the (massive) amount of data that we collect and analyze on solar radiation. It looks to be able to explain about 5 percent of warming over the past century … not irrelevant, but not driving.
yes…tell congress…NO BAIL OUT to PUTZ is gone…no platinum parachute
I won’t be buying another GM vehicle eva
We had a bit of a discussion of the Volt on the Late Late Thread on Tuesday night. A few of the commenters indicated that GM is looking for $50B in government backed loans to put the Volt into production. Most of us got sticker shock at that number.
I like the concept behind the Volt, but it appears that it might be something of a scam to bilk the government/taxpayers. I’ll have to see more details, however, before I make that judgement.
aren’t cow farts producing even more to global warming?
So, the sun is the culprit, not all the crap we pump into the atmosphere. We should be attacking the root cause. Seems like some sort of solar dimmer switch would be in order.
Ian is upstairs with:
SEC Panics And Considers Banning ALL Short Selling Making A Major Market Meltdown More Likely
Tesla is making a Lotus-based all electric sports car that goes 0 to 60 in roughly four seconds, and has a battery range of more than 200 miles — so they say.
Since they need a bailout there must be a lot of people who agree with you. I am really torn about this. My gut says don’t bail them out but then I think about all the folks who would be out of work. Quite a problem.
Interesting point …
But, as to Lutz, you would think that as a senior VP in a major corporation he would understand that there are issues to defer. His commment reall should be something like this.
Something like that …
In the past, I worked with people at GM on electric vehicles. They were perfectly sincere and competent, but also rather forlorn characters because they knew that GM management only funded them to shut up the environmentalists. Whenever the engineers came up with a reasonable idea, management would rapidly shoot it down because the last thing they wanted was to build electric cars, apparently even if they could made a good profit doing so. Lutz is interesting because he doesn’t even try to be a convincing supporter of the Volt. He sounds like a young hood forced to recite a poem in English class.
Unfortunately, the car is only eight inches long but Stuart Little will have a blast.
Even if it fails as a vehicle, it would be a fitting name for Palin’s next child.
The first time I drove a Prius was as a rental car and found myself going over 85 down the NJ Turnpike and had no clue…… That car had a ton of zip and because I did not hear a motor or feel the engine which is my usual clues besides the speedometer that I was going that fast…. From then on when I was hitting highways I would put it on cruse control just to be safe…..
I bought a 80 diesel car crap; 83 buick – crap; every GM I have bought since a 62 bonny has been crap. I’ll buy a ford or an american made Toyota
Granted, Lutz might not be the best salesman… It’s amazing that with executives like that, GM isn’t a deep financial hole…
My one criticism of how GM handled the EV1 is how they squandered the advantage they held in alternative fuel vehicles, the efforts of their engineers, and the excitement of their customer base by shelving the program.
I’ll grant you your right to choose if you grant me mine. I want a car company that makes the effort to meet my driving needs (driving 2-10 mi/day, 4 days/wk). That’s why my next car will be a Myers NmG. It will be a replacement for my Chevrolet (its not a Camaro, by the way).
I drive a Honda CRV which I bought new 9 years ago. It has less than 22,000 miles – you can see how much I drive – and last week it cost me $50.00 to fill the tank. If I were not so old I’d get a bike.
Go ahead and get the bike but make it a tandem and have someone else ride in front, then only pedal when they look back.
Oh dear, not this again. Cars aren’t the whole problem here. And besides, muscle cars can be fuel-efficent- it’s possible, for example, to get 30 MPG in a Corvette if you feather the throttle (yea right). That’s not bad for a 430 HP sports car.
#36, I prefer having a defining engine note before I can declare it to be a great muscle car. The Tesla doesn’t have one, and it doesn’t have a manual transmission, so I’d be hesitant to count it as one.
That sounds like a fair deal to me.
Lutz’ Chevy-Gore (I love Colbert!) is gonna cost between thirty and forty grand. That ain’t gonna sway too many Prius buyers, who are getting in the drivers seat for twenty large — right now.
And I was insulted by the global warming stuff. Lutz is known in the industry as a “car guy” but I have to say he came off as a pretty stupid “car guy” especially considering Colbert’s audience. Unless he’s a really stupid “car guy” and thinks Colbert is just a junior version of Papa Bear, like Tom Delay did.
It’s possible.
If you think the Volt is gonna feed your muscle-car jones, you’re wrong. It has a 1.4 liter engine that gets something like 87 horsepower. The efficiencies are in weight-trimming.
It’s got the pickup of a Vega. Maybe.
I was referring to the new Camaro. The Volt would make a nice daily driver, though, and the Camaro would be the weekend warrior.
Teddy — The ICE does not drive the car directly, the electric engine does. The ICE is simply for recharging the batteries/powering the electric system and has no direct relationship to the Volt’s acceleration.
It’s a fundamental of the market system.
Price fixing by the Seven Sisters was bad, but not having a competitor to oil is worse.
The temporary monopoly an ER room has over your wallet is no competition at all.
I love plastic bags, but the problem is they’re a problem and there’s no great competitor I can choose to use.
Competition, it’s what’s for markets.
I like it. It looks muscular. It says get out of my way. It says expensive!
What I don’t like is for “the heartbeat of America” to be slowly dying.
We Democrats want Michigan in our column. We want unionized workers who have good lives. We want people to do well in business. We also want to cut down on Carbon emissions which many of us think are a problem (amongst many other things). Personally, I also favor the noise reduction of non-combustion engines. I think most of us favor NOT having to go abroad for so much of our energy. It may be small, but I like the idea of Americans leading the world in this field before some other creative types put us to shame.
Do a small number of Rich people think that their wealth is more important than ALLLLL those other things? It just shows that it’s not only Wall Street and the Republican Party and the McCain-Palin ticket are out of touch with what’s good for America. Big Oil and Big Metal may be wedded, but the day when they will be irrelevant isn’t so far off as it once was.
Somewhere in the universe of futures there is one which allows Chevy to continue to make obscene profits without doing much work AND where we get the things we want. Our job is to find that future and bring it about.
That’s where creativity and political leadership comes in.
Continued production of CO2 cars is a problem which will be overcome one way or another. They can be part of that or disappear.
There will be some money spread around to stimulate the Green Revolution. There’s little doubt of that. A lot of it is likely to be pork. It’s unfortunate, but that’s how government works. Somehow I can’t see Congress responding favorably to a blackmail threat.
Since their continued production of CO2 cars is unacceptable and being blackmailed is unacceptable that might leave the government no choice but to protect America from them by taking them over. I’d have never thought of that before yesterday, but now it’s inevitable some people will think about it. This is not the position any of us should be in. Bush and GM seem to want us here.
Better would be for a natural evolutionary process, greased by some government money, to produce many competitors and let the best cars win.
People who stand in the way of such a simple hopeful scenario might be run over by government.
Plastic bags … no competitor?
Never heard of cloth bags? Reuseable bags?
To be honest, regret that it took me so long, but my household is easily down 90% on plastic bags over the past two years … easily.
For some encouragement to do so, please take a moment to read Take your canvas bag …