Environmental-Action.org call to action against GM and Ford

I was going to post an e-mail I sent out yesterday via Environmental-Action.org, but I clicked ‘submit’ before realizing I hadn’t actually captured any of my brilliant e-mail with the ctrl-c function. (Well, it wasn’t exactly brilliant, it was more of a short rant, that was at most borderline poignant.)

Anyhow – Environmental-Action.org follows environmental policy type topics and if you request, they’ll send you an occasional call-to-action e-mail. What’s so great about these e-mails is that Environmental-Action.org writes a letter for you and all you have to do is put in your name, address, e-mail and send it off. (This is all done on their website. Click a link in the e-mail they send you and it takes you to a ready made page where you put in your info.) I’ve done this multiple times, most recently regarding the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (I also personally e-mailed my own congress people and senators about this, but that is a topic for another day).

Yesterday the Environmental-action.org e-mail asked me to send a note to car manufacturers (specifically GM and Ford) demanding them to stop making gas guzzling vehicles and start making more fuel efficient ones so we can stop our reliance on foreign oil and fight global warming. Here’s another great thing - Environmental-action.org also gives you the option to put the letter in your own words if you want to. So I did. I changed the argument up a bit, and instead of focusing on reducing reliance on foreign oil, I suggested that GM and Ford will lose market share to Honda and Toyota if they don’t change their act. I suggested that the explanations behind plant closures GM (and other U.S. companies) use for declining profits – poor economy, high wages, rising health insurance premiums, rising workers comp costs, blah, blah – are not the real reasons behind the struggling car manufacturers downturn. The real reason is because they are resisting change. If American car manufacturers don’t start rolling out more fuel efficient vehicles, hybrids or cars and trucks with alternative fuel capacities they’ll simply lose to other car manufacturers that are doing it. Additionally, if car manufacturers can partner with or fund alternative fuel researchers it will not only help in reducing our dependence on foreign oil, but will create a marketplace for new kinds of vehicles. (That was the gist of my e-mail – wanted to keep it short in case someone does actually read it).

I probably wouldn’t have done anything other than perhaps give a soliloquious rant on my newly formed blog if it weren’t for Environmental-action.org’s call to action e-mail. And while I don’t know if GM and Ford will actually read my response, I doubt I’m the only person who sent a message. A ton of responses are a lot harder to ignore than just one.