There’s One Thing Volkswagen Can Do to Stop the Bleeding

First we learned Volkswagen sold 11 million diesel cars specifically designed to conceal deadly NOx emissions. Now we’re told another 800,000 have been coughing up faulty readings of carbon dioxide—the very thing more than 80 world leaders are addressing at climate talks in Paris this month.

It’s hard to imagine a more damaging scandal. This is a company that built its modern brand on efficiency, engineering and warm fuzzy feelings (think flower vases built into VW bugs and commercials of dear friends driving under the spell of Nick Drake’s Pink Moon). Deception, pollution, and lung cancer: These do not inspire warm and fuzzy feelings.