Re: [Biofuel] Toyota: Auto Industry Race to the Bottom
Dawie Coetzee wrote: > GOOD STUFF SNIPPED > The pattern is becoming familiar: the "better" the solution to > the problem becomes, the bigger the problem has to become for the solution to > work. > SNIP > Dawie Coetzee Very well put Dawie. At the end of the day, despite the best efforts, this level of industry just doesn't work. I'd like to hear from someone knowedgeable who thinks it can. In my view, it just consumes too many resources, regardless of how much steel, plastic, etc is 'recycled'. It just doesn't work. Fact is, there are PLENTY of cars and trucks. Just like there are plenty of internal combustion engines. The planet doesn't need any more of them. Could do with a whole lot less. Over time could probably make do quite well with none, but that's not really my point. The worst polluting vehicles out there, are the older ones, which are also the most likely to be simple to convert to alternative fuels. The most 'unsafe' vehicles out there, are also the older ones who could marginalize their lack of safety by just slowing the heck down, or by just not being used all the damn time. We, the inhabitants of this planet, just don't need any more cars. At all. Race to the bottom? Yup. -- Chip Mefford Before Enlightenment; chop wood carry water After Enlightenment; chop wood carry water - Public Key http://www.well.com/user/cpm ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Toyota: Auto Industry Race to the Bottom
This does not surprise me in the least. It is entirely consistent with what has been bothering me about the "new, efficient" cars. The business of the motor industry is not to produce automobiles but to operate plant, at a profit. In order to do this the plant has to operate at above a certain critical percentage of full capacity - but nowhere near full capacity as the planet simply cannot generate that sort of demand despite the most valiant campaigns of marketing, need-manufacturing, and regulation-breeding. The more sophisticated (in terms of the prevalent mind-set) the design of the product, the higher the absolute volume at which that critical percentage of full capacity is reached; the greater production volume has to be, the more product has to be sold. The pattern is becoming familiar: the "better" the solution to the problem becomes, the bigger the problem has to become for the solution to work. Forget "efficiency": design for FEWNESS. Unfortunately this is just what the motor industry, being what it is, cannot afford to do. Regards Dawie Coetzee - Original Message From: Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Friday, 19 September, 2008 4:13:55 Subject: [Biofuel] Toyota: Auto Industry Race to the Bottom http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15182 Toyota: Auto Industry Race to the Bottom by Barbara Briggs, Special to CorpWatch September 16th, 2008 Beneath Toyota's buffed shine lies a dark undercoat. The Toyota Corporation enjoys a fine reputation for well-built cars, environmental innovation, flexible production lines and effective management practices. But in its quest for ever-increasing efficiency, profitability and growth, the world's largest auto manufacturer has sparked a race to the bottom that, like its car sales, is global in scope. Around the world, the company has been complicit in union busting in the Philippines, and engages in cozy relationships with Burma/Myanmar's military dictatorship. In the U.S. - where Toyota has 13 facilities employing some 36,000 people, and sells an average of 56,923 vehicles each week - the need of the Big Three (General Motors, Ford and Daimler Chrysler) auto companies to compete is causing profound changes in the industry. And in Japan, at its flagship operation in Toyota City, some 30 percent of the workforce is temporary workers who earn as little as half what permanent employees do. In the surrounding area, a network of closely-related supplier companies utilizes thousands of foreign guest workers under conditions that, by many definitions, qualify as human trafficking. Toyota Japan has also created a work environment so stressful that, each year, an estimated 200 to 300 employees are incapacitated or killed from overwork and stress related illness. Prius in the Making In 2002, the year he died, Kenichi Uchino was 30 years old and married, with a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son. He had worked as a quality control inspector for the Prius hybrid at Toyota's Tsutsumi plant in Toyota City, north of Nagoya. Following his father and grandfather, who were both lifetime Toyota employees, Uchino had joined the company right out of high school, and was a good worker. But as Toyota management added more and more responsibilities to his work load, Uchino began to feel the strain of the enormous overtime that was expected - and mostly unpaid. After his official, eight-hour shift was over, he prepared reports for the next shift. He had additional tasks relating to health and safety and traffic control inside the plant. Uchino was also a quality-circle leader. Toyota prides itself on employee participation in problem solving and constant improvement. Several times a month, workers meet in groups of ten or so, and are expected to submit at least two well-fleshed-out suggestions each month for improvement. All this time - to meet, to coordinate the group, write up suggestions and so forth - took place off-the-clock. Adding to their physical and mental strain, Toyota workers alternate weekly between day and night shifts. On the day shift, Uchino routinely worked 13 to 15 hours a day, often six days a week, from 5:40 a.m. to 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. The week before he died, he put in 85 hours counting the three hours he worked at home on Sunday. The week he died, he was on the night shift, normally 70 hours a week, from 3:20 p.m. to 5:20 a.m. He typically got home around 7:00, just as his wife Hiroko was getting up to make breakfast. But on the morning of February 9, 2002, he never came home. At 4:20 a.m., 13 hours into what would have been his regular 14-hour shift, he collapsed in his office. Twenty minutes later he was pronounced dead from a heart attack. But the real cause of death, was a condition so common that a word was created to describe it: "karoshi," literally death from overwork. "He kept saying and hoping things would g
re: [Biofuel] Toyota gas, diesel and hybrids
See long and rant-laden response below: :-) Not particularly either, considering. "Preaching to the choir" maybe, and indeed it's all been said before, or most of it, but you're absolutely right, and the more people say it the better, because the problem remains. > Toyota keeps focus on gas, diesel > Automaker also working on hybrid, fuel cell technologies > By Christine Tierney / The Detroit News > Oct 24, 2004 > http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0410/24/c04-313133.htm > > As oil hits record-high prices, driving up the cost of gasoline, > the auto industry is exploring new technologies to make vehicles > more fuel-efficient. What pains me the most about this is that first sentence... it's the same exact thing that auto makers and government said in the 1970s. And yet we learned nothing. And again in the early 80s. And auto fuel consumption averages are worse in the US now than they were then. I know this is preaching to the choir but think about this: Perhaps someday we make a broad switch to biofuels (either on our own proactively (doubtful) or reactively as the result of near zero petrol (likley) ). However, at that time biofuels and biomass will become the industry standard and thus much more profitable. At this point what stands in the way of corporations striping the earth of even the biomass? Us? And MANY others. What this means to me is we MUST not only promote biomass but promote, either at the same time or even before, conservation of said biomass resources. While most of us probably think and operate along these lines already, I think it should be stressed just as much as the development of the various fuels. Definitely. Some could argue that there is plenty for the taking and truly a viable solar solution would be the ultimate goal. But it scares me to think that we could be in the same boat 40 years from now because we (corporations and their consumers) have reaped the biomass so badly its no different then toda. And auto makers will say things like, "As [insert fuel here] hits record-high prices,..." Steve Spence once said here: "I have a niggling feeling that 10 years from now, the environmentalists will be fighting the ethanol industry tooth and nail. Anything can be done badly, and I expect the ADM's of the world will be successful in turning a clean renewable resource into a dirty unsustainable one..." Have a look at this previous post: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/BIOFUEL/36420/ 2004-06-30 - Re: Palm oil... There are quite a lot like that in the archives. What can be achieved by growing biofuels crops by industrialised agriculture methods that destroy the very resources they depend on, and are heavily dependent on fossil-fuel inputs? How can sustainable fuels be produced via non-sustainable methods? Of course there's no need. It's become a bit of a mantra here over the years, our attitude to this: A rational energy future requires great reductions in energy use, great improvements in energy efficiency, and most important, decentralisation of supply to the local level, with the use of all available renewable energy technologies in combination as the local circumstances demand. It gets said when people ask questions like, How much land will it take to grow enough biofuels crops to replace fossil fuels? As if replacing the current levels of energy waste in the OECD countries particularly, and especially in the US, is an option at all - it's just the whining of a heroin addict facing cold turkey. It needn't be cold turkey though, but the longer the necessary changes are postponed the worse it's going to be. The longer it's left to corporations and "consumers" (a sub-set of corporations) and the governments they own the longer it will be postponed. Humans are not mere "consumers" - an open mouth and not much else. We're individuals and citizens of our planet - true citizens, unlike the ersatz "citizenship" conferred on corporations. More and more of us are waking up to this and acting accordingly - acting, yes, not just passively consuming whatever we're handed. It's up to us. I don't think we'll disappoint. Corporatists always point to Adam Smith to justify all things. This is from another previous post: "GOING back two centuries, economists have worried about what Adam Smith described as the tendency of chieftains in a market system 'to deceive and even to oppress the public.'" Yes, that's what he really said. Something else he really said: "Adam Smith commented in 1776 that the only trades that justified incorporation were banking, insurance, canal building and waterworks. He believed it was contrary to the public interest for any other businesses or trades to be incorporated and that all should be run as partnerships." I guess you could read "canal building" as "public transport". You certainly can't read "waterworks" as World Bank/Bechtel/Adam Smith Institute-style water privati
re: [Biofuel] Toyota gas, diesel and hybrids
See long and rant-laden response below: > Toyota keeps focus on gas, diesel > Automaker also working on hybrid, fuel cell technologies > By Christine Tierney / The Detroit News > Oct 24, 2004 > http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0410/24/c04-313133.htm > > As oil hits record-high prices, driving up the cost of gasoline, > the auto industry is exploring new technologies to make vehicles > more fuel-efficient. What pains me the most about this is that first sentence... it's the same exact thing that auto makers and government said in the 1970s. And yet we learned nothing. I know this is preaching to the choir but think about this: Perhaps someday we make a broad switch to biofuels (either on our own proactively (doubtful) or reactively as the result of near zero petrol (likley) ). However, at that time biofuels and biomass will become the industry standard and thus much more profitable. At this point what stands in the way of corporations striping the earth of even the biomass? What this means to me is we MUST not only promote biomass but promote, either at the same time or even before, conservation of said biomass resources. While most of us probably think and operate along these lines already, I think it should be stressed just as much as the development of the various fuels. Some could argue that there is plenty for the taking and truly a viable solar solution would be the ultimate goal. But it scares me to think that we could be in the same boat 40 years from now because we (corporations and their consumers) have reaped the biomass so badly its no different then toda. And auto makers will say things like, "As [insert fuel here] hits record-high prices,..." ___ Biofuel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable): http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
Re: [biofuel] Toyota
Hi Dennis >Hey Keith! > >I've been enjoying your posts for some time. Thankyou! All is not lost! >Tried to >visit one of the site's you gave in your post >concerning the PNGV & Toyota. I can't get to it or the >site is gone . > >http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=4959 > >Any idea if the address is still good? I'm sure it is, but I got a note from tompaine.com saying their site would be down for a few days. Try again next week I think. However... Ha! It's in the archives, you can read it here: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/BIOFUEL/10937/ Driving In Circles New Fuel-Efficiency Initiative Is More PR Than Progress by Steven Rosenfeld The Bush administration is giving Detroit a subsidy to develop hydrogen-fueled cars. But if history is a guide, automakers will use the program to cover their lack of any real progress on fuel efficiency. It's an interview with Jack Doyle. Here's the other one, while I'm at it, also at tompaine.com, Fool Cells - How Detroit Plays Americans For A Bunch Of Suckers, by Jack Doyle: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/BIOFUEL/20706/ >As long as I'm at it .. in another post of >yours dealing with rachel.org and the "duty to >consider" you might want to be a proponent of the >concept of hanging a few politicians and/or >bureaucrats. As the "14 Points ..." stated "..past >practices have failed us". I predict after a few of >them are left swinging from the trees in front of any >given legislature the others will see a whole new way >of behavior and action. Yes! Great minds think alike (or is it that fools never differ? LOL!). We were talking about it the other night, about Japan, where, when some politician or bureaucrat or public servant or whatever does something dreadful or corrupt and is exposed, they invariably make this same public apology, saying "I apologise for disturbing the peace of the society." And that's it! On with business as usual. Now in the good old days, we were saying, when men were men and all that, they'd've have done that, yes, but also they'd've disembowelled themselves with a sword and not cavilled about it. Bring back the good old days! we said, issue them all with free swords on the National Health bill or something. Trouble is one wonders how high the survival rate might be. Or low perhaps. The big story here at the moment is about the compulsory pension fund payments everybody has to make, a contentious matter because there are more old people, fewer young ones, the budget is down and so on. So the Diet (parliament) has been legislating new measures, lots of arguments, when suddenly it's found that this particular legislator who's been pontificating about people's duty and so on, um, hasn't paid his pension fund. Ulp... Oh, he forgot, it's complicated, it takes time. Sure... And then another one, and another - scores of them haven't paid their pension fund payments. Right chaps, off you go, got your swords? There's no such thing as public disgrace now. Just off the top of my head (so to speak) I can think of a dozen recent cases, I'm sure any of us can, where people did a lot worse than disturb the peace of the society, it's all been exposed, and far from being handed swords and told to do the right thing or left swinging from the trees in front of City Hall or Corporate HQ, it hardly made them blink, they'll probably do it again. This one's my "favourite": #1 corporate criminal, ex-Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson, who presided over the Bhopal disaster in India, an international fugitive from charges of culpable homicide and an extradition order from the government of India for the past 12 years after jumping bail there. He was unearthed in 2002 by a UK newspaper and Greenpeace, living a life of luxury in New York State. American authorities had always insisted they did not know his whereabouts. Greenpeace videotaped Anderson and handed him a warrant for his arrest. He denied who he was and then ran inside the house. The journalists discovered that Anderson's local golf club subscription costs $2700 a year, more than five times what Union Carbide's victims in Bhopal got for a lifetime of illness and suffering (let alone the 20,000-plus who were killed, or the poisoned babies still being born there). No sword for this guy, there's honour in seppuku, no punishment would be sufficient for Anderson. One has to leave it to his gods to take care of him in an apt manner, as they most surely will do. How has all this come to pass? Paul Krugman has something to say about it: http://www.pkarchive.org/economy/ForRicher.html For Richer By Paul Krugman NYT Magazine October 20, 2002 Good read. Yes, Dennis, it sure would put a whole new face on things. New faces, and maybe not very many of them, no queues for the job either. This is what Ben Franklin said in David Brin's "The Postman": "It's said that 'power corrupts', but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The s
Re: [biofuel] Toyota
Hey Keith! I've been enjoying your posts for some time. Tried to visit one of the site's you gave in your post concerning the PNGV & Toyota. I can't get to it or the site is gone . http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=4959 Any idea if the address is still good? As long as I'm at it .. in another post of yours dealing with rachel.org and the "duty to consider" you might want to be a proponent of the concept of hanging a few politicians and/or bureaucrats. As the "14 Points ..." stated "..past practices have failed us". I predict after a few of them are left swinging from the trees in front of any given legislature the others will see a whole new way of behavior and action. Best regards, Dennis Nelson __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Movies - Buy advance tickets for 'Shrek 2' http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes/movie?mid=1808405861 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM -~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] Toyota
Beware MM. The one hand knoweth not... And what I said is specific to what happens on Planet Japan, if it related at all to what happens on Planet Earth it could simply be a coincidence. I doubt that Toyota USA has a similar attitude to ExxonMobil et al as the domestic company would have to the petroleum majors here. This for several reasons. The most powerful group here is the Keidanren, the big-business "club", the current chairman of which is the head of Toyota. That might not put Toyota itself at the top of the pile in the political world, and both those things might not reflect directly on its position in the business world, or at any rate not as one might expect. From what very little I know of the Keidanren, the ins and outs of who supports whom and why, of who depends on whose support for their position, would be byzantine. That people, groups, corporations, would not want to confront the petroleum majors could have much more to do with this than with what in other countries might be far more weighty realities. So it might not be an example of anything, apart from what I used it for in a discussion we had last night with some friends, which concluded that Japan does not have a real policy on anything, domestic or foreign, just these highly unaccountable top-level favour banks. Sure, you could say that about most countries, if not all, but it's a matter of degree. I can see you'll need some proof of that. Try these - not proof, indeed, but some support anyway, and an interesting read: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/EF11Dh06.html Asia Times Jun 11, 2003 COMMENTARY Japan: An autocracy ruled by bureaucrats By Katsuo Hiizumi http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_44/b3705125.htm ECONOMICS Japan Explained Author Karel van Wolferen's insights are appreciated by the Japanese themselves OCTOBER 30, 2000 Last night someone said that you encounter grey areas in Japan when you try to separate government, big business and the Yakuza, organised crime. Again, true in many or most countries, and who knows how that might or might not apply in this particular case, but it brings in the idea of territories, and I think that's important. Certainly it's important to the bureaucrats, as Hiizumi's article above shows. And big business, for all their cant about competitiveness, doesn't like competing, they're not interested in "playing fields", certainly not "level" ones. What they want is control. They tend to divide things up among themselves into fiefdoms where they're in control. As does the mafia. As do bureaucrats. This is not a scene where upsetting people's applecarts is a good idea, and sod mere details like the good of the country and whether there's a hole in the sky or not. Thus in Hiizumi's piece Tanaka doesn't even get his wrist slapped for his extraordinary behaviour, though Koizumi's no pussycat. So Toyota won't challenge the fuel majors here, nor the DieselNo! campaign, but they'll put huge resources into developing super-clean diesels for Europe - but not for Japan. And not for the US either - a whole other set of applecarts there. In the US they market SUV gas-guzzlers, but not in Europe, nor here, or not much. They're pragmatic. I'm sure that by the same token there'd be areas where the fuel majors would not challenge Toyota. So, please, caution in transposing what I was told to another context. That's not to say I disagree with your outline below. It's very interesting, and I do rather agree with it. I get the idea that there's a lot of horse-trading going on behind the scenes, complicated negotiations along with the mutual back-scratchings. This rather than raw "edicts", implied or not - deals, followed by renegotiations, and some sort of movement, though slow and painful, and that more so in some places than others (Eu vs US, eg). In the US the EPA's just announced that overall fuel efficiency's the same this year as it was last year. Does that mean Detroit is doing what it's told, or should one look for the concessions Big Oil would have had to make for that? (Or maybe this isn't the right year for that!) Does Ford's new "super-green" plant at Rouge that they say is a model all their plants will follow perhaps reduce the fossil-fuel inputs of vehicle manufacture to any considerable extent? I don't know, just trying to paint a picture. This is the kind of deal I mean - not a "good" example but perhaps an apt one - this was a previous message to you, you'll probably remember it, but I think I'll repost it anyway, it's worth another read: >Hi MM > >> >"The primary focus of this contract will be to test and develop >> >high-efficiency engines with low emissions rates," said Gary >> >Stecklein, director of SwRI's Vehicle and Driveline Research >> >Department. "We will test and optimize advanced technology engines, >> >powertrains and hydraulic pump motors." >> > >> >Since 1994, the Vehicle and Driveline Research Department has >> >sup
Re: [biofuel] toyota petition
Sam Clarkson wrote: > Okay, > I didn't mean to offend anyone- > so there are vw defenders out there, please, don't take it as an assault, > perhaps VW makes the best car in the world- > perhaps the U.S. market would NOT be enhanced by more options > I'm going to put a deposit on a jetta wagon next week, bc vw is the > only option in the u.s, and this is the last year we can buy them in CA Yet another good reason to _not_ live in California, IMHO. > Is this right? > is this competition? No, and no, respectively. > would it hurt to call toyota even if you love your VW more than life? > > if you don't feel like calling, here's an easy online petition by a > toyota 4x4 club. > http://www.petitiononline.com/ifs/ The thrust of this line seems to be getting Toyota to keep solid axles and gear driven transfer cases. The diesel stuff seems to be an afterthought. My comment on that issue is that one should not assume solid axles are any particularly more reliable than independent suspension. Same for gear driven transfer cases. > U.S. diesel options=more bio rigs on the market=less fossil fuel > consumption=less war=fewer dead people. And whether the powers that be like it or not, if people really want diesel vehicles they will have them, one way or another. > if you feel like it, call toyota's comment line: > I am not a toyota salesman, though I would probably make more money if I > were > toyota's comment # is > 1800 331 4331 > ask them for U.S. Diesel options > it is easy It's a good idea. Toyota builds good diesels, and I'd like to see them in the US again. If enough consumers request it then perhaps it'll happen. It's a matter of demand and money, because before Toyota can bring a diesel model into the US again they're going to have to clear it with DOT and EPA. AP Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~--> Make Money Online Auctions! Make $500.00 or We Will Give You Thirty Dollars for Trying! http://us.click.yahoo.com/yMx78A/fNtFAA/i5gGAA/FGYolB/TM -~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
