[tml] 6/14 FORD MOTOR COMPANY

[tactical]

FORD MOTOR COMPANY

CEO: William Clay Ford, Jr.
Contact the Corporation: Ford Motor Company
P.O. Box 685
Dearborn, MI 48126-0685
Email: wford@ford.com

Human rights violations: environmental degradation, climate change, fueling 
wars for oil

The US automobile industry is fueling America's addiction to oil. 
Automobiles are the single largest consumer of oil in the US, a country 
that constitutes less than five percent of the world's population but 
consumes 25 percent of its oil. The US addiction to oil is linked with a 
host of human rights and environmental problems, including human rights 
abuses in countries such as Nigeria, Ecuador, Sudan, South Africa and 
Indonesia. The US oil addiction has prompted the US government to cozy up 
to human rights violating governments such as that of Saudi Arabia. It has 
pushed indigenous people off their land and destroyed hundreds of thousands 
of acres of rainforests, which are home to half the planet and animal 
species on the planet. It has fueled wars for oil, such as the war in Iraq, 
which has so far caused the deaths of more than 2,100 US troops and an 
estimated 27,000 to 100,000 Iraqis. It has polluted cities, endangering the 
health of millions of people who live in high-ozone communities and leading 
to hundreds of thousands of cases of childhood asthma. And, by being a 
major contributor to global warming, has increased the likelihood of 
extreme weather events like Hurricane Katrina, which killed at least 1,289 
people.

Among automakers, Ford Motor Company is the worst. Every year since 1999, 
the US Environmental Protection Agency has ranked Ford cars, trucks and 
SUVs as having the worst overall fuel economy of any American automaker. 
Ford's current car and truck fleet has a lower average fuel efficiency than 
the original Ford Model-T.

Ford is also in last place when it comes to vehicle greenhouse gas 
emissions. According to a recent report by the Union of Concerned 
Scientists, Ford has "the absolute worst heat-trapping gas emissions 
performance of all the Big Six automakers." In fact, if Ford were a 
country, it would be the 10th largest global warming polluter worldwide, 
behind Italy.

Amazingly, despite the company's recent greenwashing PR campaign, its 
record has actually worsened. According to Ford's own sustainability 
report, between 2003 and 2004, the company's US fleet-wide fuel economy 
decreased and its CO2 emissions went up. Ford is also lobbying to prevent 
the U.S. and state governments from improving the situation: the company 
has lobbied against lawmakers' efforts to increase fuel economy standards 
at the national level and is also involved in a lawsuit against 
California's fuel economy standards.

Who's working on it:
•Bluewater Action Network
•Energy Action
•Jumpstart Ford, a coalition of Global Exchange, Rainforest Action Network 
and the Ruckus Society 
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