According to the for-profit Orange County Automobile Dealers Association, the top new retail car and truck registrations this year through May:
Toyota: 29.3%
GM: 12%
Honda: 11.5%
Ford: 9.7%
DaimlerChrysler: 6.3%
Nissan: 5.6%
According to the nonprofit Environmental Defense, the percentage of carbon dioxide–the main pollutant causing global warming–emitted by vehicles on the basis of brand through 2004 was:
GM (64.4 million vehicles): 31%
Ford (49.8 million): 26%
DaimlerChrysler (30.4 million): 16%
Toyota (18.6 million): 9%
Honda (13.3 million): 6%
Nissan (10 million): 5%
You'll notice that those with the most cars on the road naturally had the highest pollutant percentage. Environmental Defense added that the U.S. accounts for 5% of the world's population but contributes 45% of the world's emissions of carbon dioxide. Americans own 30% of the world's vehicles, drive farther than the international average and burn more gasoline per gallon than anyone else. Which can mean only one thing:
WOO-HOO! WE'RE NO. 1!! USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.