The Mass Production of Automobiles

While Henry Ford generally gets credit for inventing the assembly line and mass-producing automobiles, it was actually fellow auto-maker Ransom E. Olds- creator of the Oldsmobile- who did it first, in 1901. The idea allowed Olds to boost production from 425 cars in 1901 to 2500 in 1902. Henry Ford, however, does deserve credit for adding conveyor belts to the assembly line, cutting production time of a Model T from 36 hours to 90 minutes. By 1927, more than 18 million Ford cars had rolled off the assembly line.

Old's and Ford's feats of engineering led to a boom in American industry. They also led us down the road to our current ecological emergency. After years of heated debate over whether humans were to blame for global warming, the evidence is now incontrovertible. The United States currently dumps about 1.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. About one fifth of that comes from private cars, pick-ups, minivans and SUV's.

But the same ingenuity that got us here could also help us avoid a global warming catastrophe. The Ford Motor Company is one of several auto- makers that already offer fuel-efficient vehicles. Ford's Th!nk line of vehicles, like Ford's assembly lines, might be one of the great moments in global climate change in the future.

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great moment in global climate change: