As you may know, I sent a letter of complaint to Associated Magazines and Nedbank regarding an article in ‘Woman on Wheels’ that paints a very inaccurate picture of the role that cars play in the environmental damage they are causing.
I received a response from the author, Charleen Clarke (see below) but she has completely ignored my points illustrating how cars contribute to pollution and climate change.
However, you will be very pleased to know that Associated Magazines have asked me to send them our position on motoring and an opinion piece and have also requested to meet with Project 90 to discuss how we can input into next year’s edition of ‘Woman on Wheels’ .
This is a great result and we look forward to contributing and sharing our knowledge. This is also a great reminder that it is always worth taking the time to speak up and make your voice heard. This quote by Samuel Adams comes to mind:
“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds”.
We have yet to receive a response from Nedbank who were the official sponsors of the magazine. We’ll keep you posted.
Response from Charleen Clarke:
“Dear Ms Andrews
Thank you very much for your feedback on the ‘Little Green Monsters?’ article I compiled for the 2010 edition of Women on Wheels (WOW).
This year WOW increased its focus on environmentally friendly motoring, with the inclusion of a special ‘Green Car’ section in the annual Women’s Car of the Year Awards. This new section sends a clear message to manufacturers that WOW recognises the importance of environmentally friendly cars.
WOW also addressed amongst others the issue of green motoring and asked the question whether cars are indeed environmentally unfriendly. I am confident that my article, ‘Little Green Monsters?’ highlighted the fact that cars are not single-handedly destroying the planet. Over the past year I’ve attended a couple of conferences where the motoring industry got together to debate the issue of sustainable development in the motoring industry. One thing is clear and that is that many manufacturers are serious about the environment and that they are working on ways to make cars more environmentally friendly.
We will most probably again include a green article in next year’s issue and hope that your organization will form part of this by submitting comment and helping us spread the word on environmentally friendly motoring.
Kind regards
Charleen Clarke”
