| Hey Y'all, Well, it's official: 2005 is the busiest hurricane season since we began keeping records in the mid-1800's. We've actually run out of women's alphabetical names and . What kind of self-respecting storm goes by the name Epsilon? Florida has been hit by 8 hurricanes in the last 15 months. It's gotten so crazy that Dubya is actually appealing to the American public with a message of energy conservation. I can't wait to see him in his cardigan this winter. This Hurricane season has proven two things. First, the fact that Climate Change is real, and it BLOWS (literally)! Second, we are on our own out here. Government is clueless, and so are corporations. For our children's sake, we'd better get busy weaning ourselves from the "Oil Teat." Because there ain't no one in power working on it. There are only 2 US-owned automobile companies left: Ford and GM. Both of them are tanking. Shockingly, until last month, neither of them seemed to have a clue that their giant gas-guzzling fleets of SUVs, Trucks, and Big-Ass Cars leave them vulnerable to spikes in the price of oil. Duh! Even the oil companies themselves are talking about the reality of "Peak Oil" being upon us. They should know, right? Wouldn't you expect the Big Dogs in Detroit to have started making some adjustments by now? No, rather than investing in new technologies and taking their fleets in a greener direction, they've decide to spend hundreds of millions greening up their images while fighting against fuel-efficiency mandates. America has a deadly addiction to oil. We now devour twenty-five percent of the world's oil. Forty percent of that oil is consumed by the cars and trucks that we drive. Our dependence spawns resource wars that breed hatred and put our young people in harms way. It wreaks chaos with our climate, creating Super-Storms that take thousands of lives and destroy communities. It threatens front-line indigenous communities that live in oil-rich regions around the world. Yet, the technology exists now to dramatically raise the fuel efficiency of our fleet. Ford claims to be a leader in the auto industry, both in terms of environmental consciousness and technological innovation. Yet their cars and trucks have had the worst average fuel economy of the Big Three for six years running. Ford's 2005 fleet of cars and trucks get fewer miles per gallon than its Model T fleet did. If that ain't driving in reverse, I don't know what is. The Ruckus Society has joined forces with Rainforest Action Network and Global Exchange on the Jumpstart Ford Campaign. We have reunited three key organizations that played a critical role in rocking the World Trade Organization to its knees during the nonviolent actions in Seattle 1999. We are demanding that Ford increase the average fuel efficiency of its fleet to 50 mpg by 2010 and that they reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2020. We cannot afford to wait any longer!
Ruckus will leverage the talents of our volunteer network of action trainers and coordinators to bring new voices and perspectives into the most strategic campaign for energy solutions now taking place in the North America. We will provide opportunities for emerging leaders from Indigenous Nations in the United States and Canada to bring their unique perspectives to this struggle while taking hard skills back to their communities. Until we break the lock step juggernaut that is "Big Auto," we will never build the political power to bring "Big Oil" to heel. We believe that by driving Ford towards reinventing itself, we can transform US transportation and break our addiction to oil. |
The Jumpstart Ford Campaign has declared this November 12th a "National Day of Intervention" at Ford dealerships. Most dealers are independently-owned businesses. Many are already feeling the pressure of selling gas-guzzlers in the age of the hybrid. Grassroots activists will be at over 100 of locations around the US and Canada to call on dealerships to join us in pressuring Ford to make an ecological U-turn and come to its senses.
Please join us if you can! CLICK HERE TO Adopt your own dealer.
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