Articles by John McGrath

GM CEO admits killing electric car was a blunder

So Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, is asked in the June issue of Motor Trend magazine (not online) which decision he most regrets as CEO. His answer is appropriate, what with a certain documentary coming out soon, and it's under the fold.

Disposable everything. Really. Everything.

A few days ago, Stephen Hawking declared that the only hope for future human survival is space colonies. Specifically, Hawking said:

It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species ... Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.

Now, I'm glad to add Hawking to the list of geniuses (genii?) who are scared witless about global warming. But is this how desperate we are, that the only choice is a reverse-Battlestar Galactica?

My problems with “energy security”

I have to say I'm uneasy at the fact that the most prominent voices in favour of plug-in hybrids have been men like Tom Friedman and James Woolsey. For men like these, "energy security" is part of the wider war on terror. As Friedman is wont to say, we're at war, and lessening our dependency on oil is a necessary part of that war.

We'd like to believe that progressive causes can be made universal causes by trying to appropriate the language of national security. It would be great if we could sell the Republicans on the environment or clean energy by using their own language. But the history of this isn't great. As just one relevant example, the liberal red meat of humanitarian intervention went throught the meat grinder that is the Bush Administration, and came out Iraqi hamburger on the other end.

Duh, China’s big

Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs and Steel is an excellent read, and a great resource for environmentalists. Even better is his second book, Collapse. In it, he looks at how the collapse of civilizations has often been precipitated or exacerbated by environmental stress. One of his most stunning chapters is on China, and the vast ecological problems it faces thanks to its breakneck development.

How vast? Howzabout 10% of GDP?

China's pollution problems are costing the country more than US$200 billion a year, a top official said yesterday as he called for stronger action to balance environmental protection against economic development.

Environmental damage is costing the government roughly 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product, estimated Zhu Guangyao, deputy chief of the State Environmental Protection Agency. China's GDP for 2005 was US$2.26 trillion.

This probably explains why China abandoned it's attempt to develop a "green GDP" measurement earlier this year -- if the Chinese submitted their economy to a full accounting, it would have almost certainly shown negative growth for the last several years.