In our current climate, oil and economic crisis, ’Äúgreen’Äù technology and sustainable change is most often crusaded through fearmongering. Environmental expert, Nate Lewis of CalTech states that CO2 emission is approaching dangerous levels for our human survival in the next 40 years. The ex-director of the C.I.A., James Woolsey warns oil consumption must end as 75% of United States oil comes from the middle east and 8 out of 9 oil exporters are dictatorships. The Big Three has yet to market a successful ’Äúgreen’Äù car that people might want to own, putting them in danger of bankruptcy in the global economic recession. Electric cars and plug-in hybrid cars are touted as the answer to ending oil addiction. Yet, of the 250 million cars registered in the U.S., less than 2 million are hybrid and electric vehicles. The United States has a deep culture and love for the internal combustion automobile, and reluctance toward hybrid and electric cars is more than economic. Of all the entrepreneurs, technologists, politicians, designers and environmental experts who spoke at the 2009 ArtCenter Sustainability Summit, there was almost no emphasis on popular culture’Äôs acceptance of sustainable mobility. CULTURE MUST BE ADDRESSED to foster new attachments
and attitudes to these ’Äúgreen’Äù cars.