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April 20, 2012

Greenwashed Car Ads Make People Feel Good About Polluting

Despite all the hype about fuel efficient cars and the future of alternative fuels, there are few things more harmful to the environment than cars.

But the automakers know if they have any chance of selling cars to consumers, they need to wrap themselves up in a mantle of green. Environmentalists call this marketing "greenwashing" -- trying to make your product look more earth-friendly than it actually is.

Sure, cars are better today than they were back in 1970, when Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson decided we should start celebrating Earth Day every year on April 22. We stopped using leaded gas in cars. Automakers invented and started using catalytic converters -- which use platinum-plated ceramic balls to chemically clean exhaust before it spews out into the air. And states got tougher on smog emissions testing, keeping the worst polluting-cars off the road.

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