Items Tagged With Jack Hudson

The University Consortium is one of my three aspirational and fictional ideas that are (relatively) cheap, that would make concrete environmental gains, that could be accomplished almost instantaneously by motivated people in positions of power (by phone calls, in two cases), and that would immediately set an agenda for the next election.

Welcome to April.

On Sunday night, 3/30, Al Gore announced his new $300 million public service ad campaign on "60 Minutes." The hopefulness of the moment was undercut by the Toyota (TM - $102.90) dealer ad that preceded the segment.

The Toyota spot featured good deals on the Sequoia and the FJ Cruiser. The existence of the FJ Cruiser, in particular, can tell you more about the entire global warming conundrum than Al Gore can, because what's interesting about the FJ -- a toy S.U.V. gas guzzler that gets 16-18 mpg -- is that it was designed by Toyota years after the Prius.

The Toyota spot, the types of vehicles on sale, and Gore's new strategy, all combine to underline a theme: not much is happening, not much progress is made.

This is like a dream where your feet are stuck in mud.

This is a story of selfishness and greed, of self-centeredness, envy and the ignorant folly of a person too short-sighted to realize she should count herself lucky because her college education didn’t have to be paid for with the milk of a goat.
The tale could be called: I Can No Longer Afford to Drive My Car.