Please for a moment, set aside any personal or political opinions you have about Elon Musk. This may be difficult as Musk seems to have the same oral affliction as a former US President. We used to call it “Foot in Mouth Disease”. And it invades our consciousness almost daily…or several times a day. Anyway, park your disgust or frustration long enough to read this article from “Rest of World”. You can resume your animus upon completion. But a warning. It’s complicated.
Tesla has the well earned reputation for bringing electric vehicles to millions of believers in the “Climate Crisis”. Arguably the greatest threat to our species and trillions of other innocent plants and creatures. Electric cars are one of the answers. Tesla is making them faster than Lay’s makes potato chips. And Musk is just getting started. A new more affordable model is about to be built. This is the scaling up that all of us had hoped for. Most Americans still can’t afford an electric vehicle - even with subsidies. So praise be Elon Musk and Tesla. Maybe.
The article I am linking to describes the collision of what could be an important tool for mitigating Climate Change and the immediate survival of millions of “little people”. It is a head on collision between a laudable (even essential) goal and the ability of millions of humans to have a glass of water.
That’s the two components of this well researched and nicely written piece. But the author could elaborate on the third element. Why put a new auto factory - with all it’s supporting businesses - in a region suffering from a declining source of potable water? Why not put it in a region that has ample supplies of water? The Mexican President took that position. Until Elon made a phone call.
Simply put: PROFITS. Profits over people. Elon Musk needs more money. By parking such a huge enterprise right next to the US border, Tesla makes larger profits. Does Musk need to replace some of that stupid money he wasted on Twitter?
Is this Tesla project another example of “green washing”? Of course we want more electric vehicles. Of course we want Mexicans to have good jobs and prosper. But the trade off here seems more focused on corporate profits and personal wealth than the greater good. It would seem that having water to drink would fall into the latter category.
One more irony. Elon Musk is the same guy who pledged millions to help the citizens of Flint Michigan deal with the lead in their water. Are Mexicans any less worthy of a glass of water? Like I said. It’s complicated.
https://restofworld.org/2023/tesla-new-factory-mexico-drought/?utm_source=Rest+of+World+Newsletter&utm_campaign=ecc9b41890-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_06_26_06_48&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-ecc9b41890-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D
Excellent article, Bill. Thank you for introducing us to RestofWorld.org. New to me. You're so right... it's complicated and it's simple. And very sad. I learned so much from this and all the links with more images and text written both in Spanish (got the gist) and English. Seems like ethics and plain old common sense are the missing pieces in this sad story.