A Yearning For The Hearth

General Motors has announced that the Pontiac brand will be phased out by next year.

I’ve had six cars over the years, and three have been Pontiacs. I’d buy another too, and maybe I will if they get cheap enough now that they’re going out of business! My first was – brace yourself – a 1987 Firebird. I was 19 and I loved it. I bought it from a disc jockey who had it painted bright red, but the paint was starting to peel. I’m guessing that’s why he sold it. It was the ultimate cheese-mobile, of course and it wasn’t even that fast, but it was a cool car in its day, and it was actually a pretty good car. It ran well and got good mileage (it was a V6).

After my Firebird got T-boned I tried to replace it…despite warnings from friends and family, I bought a 1985 silver Fiero. It was cheap. I think $1200. Seemed to run okay, but the first time I changed oil it started to smoke, so the guy must have added something to the crankcase to mask it. And it burned oil. And it was gutless. And it was rife with electrical problems. Still, it kept me mobile for a couple years. Eventually the tranny died, but by that point I’d bought a more practical car anyway, a Chevy Malibu.

When I got married we inherited my in-law’s 2000 Grand Am. This was a very good car that drove well and I liked it. When we moved to Europe the car had to go, but my brother has it and it’s still going strong. 

So that’s been my Pontiac experience. I’m a little sad to see the brand die off. I thought the new line of cars set themselves apart a bit and I’ve always liked the little extra effort that they put into Pontiac interiors. Actually, GMs decisions around this downsizing don’t completely add up to me. Why axe Pontiac, but keep GMC – which really is redundant? Why axe Saturn, when you know you’re going to need to expand your range of cheap, efficient cars? Since Saturn has started selling rebranded Opels the cost of putting that line together must have been comparatively low.

Whatever becomes of GM, it’s going to be a very different beast from what’s its been.

Since I’ve bad mouthed environmentalists, I’d better make my own case about how I think we should be using the planet.

Here’s the first bit. An interview with Wendell Berry, mostly about science, but in which he also speaks about how he thinks land should be farmed and how humans can use the land without destroying it.

This is a Yahoo app for Firefox and Explorer. It’s got a ton of features, but what I like is that it finds music embedded on websites and places a handy pop-out control center on the left hand of the screen that lets you pick though the audio files online and play through what you want easily.

An Ed Neufeld sermon.

Do you believe in global warming?

Note the phrasing. It’s not something you think is true or untrue. It’s something you believe or don’t believe. It’s a matter of faith and creed. It’s one pillar in the new orthodoxies that govern our civilization. To deny it is to be labeled at the least a fool, who stubbornly denies the obvious truth, or just as likely a malevolent tool of the corporate machine that is destroying life on earth.

“The greatest threat we have ever known.” This all-to-common refrain and other like it have become so common they barely register when spoken. Not an eyebrow is lifted. The rhetoric of modern environmentalism has morphed into something resembling that of an apocalyptic cult. The Jack Van Impes of the environmental movement now toe the standard line.

Hyperbole is impossible. There’s no way of speaking about the dangers of global warming which will be interpreted as an exaggeration. To the contrary, whoever speaks in the most most extreme terms will be seen as most reasonable and responsible.

Is this not a sign that things have veered off course? None of us, on our own is capable of registering the small, incremental increases that are being described, much less predicting the outcome as it plays out in a biosphere much more complex than we understand. Rather, our information is brought to us from scientists via an inflammatory media, whose existence depends on keeping us watching and interested.

What of global warming then? Is it real? Maybe. Probably. What does it mean? That’s a bigger question. It might mean cutting back on our decadence to some extent, if the recession doesn’t do that for us. It might be beyond our ability to change much. It may cause problems, or it may not. We don’t know. Caution and cautious language should be the name of the game. Let’s give it a try.