About this item
A shocking expos of Volkswagen's fraud by the New York Times reporter who covered the scandal.In mid-2015, Volkswagen proudly reached its goal of surpassing Toyota as the world's largest automaker. A few months later, the EPA disclosed that Volkswagen had installed software in 11 million cars that deceived emissions-testing mechanisms. By early 2017, VW had settled with American regulators and car owners for $20 billion, with additional lawsuits still looming. In Faster, Higher, Farther, Jack Ewing rips the lid off the conspiracy. He describes VW's rise from "the people's car" during the Nazi era to one of Germany's most prestigious and important global brands, touted for being "green." He paints vivid portraits of Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piech and chief executive Martin Winterkorn, arguing that the corporate culture they fostered drove employees, working feverishly in pursuit of impossible sales targets, to illegal methods. Unable to build cars that could meet emissions standards in the United States honestly, engineers were left with no choice but to cheat. Volkswagen then compounded the fraud by spending millions marketing "clean diesel," only to have the lie exposed by a handful of researchers on a shoestring budget, resulting in a guilty plea to criminal charges in a landmark Department of Justice case. Faster, Higher, Farther reveals how the succeed-at-all-costs mentality prevalent in modern boardrooms led to one of corporate history's farthest-reaching cases of fraud -- with potentially devastating consequences. 8 pages of illustrations
About the Author
The cattle business may have brought Jack Ewing to Costa Rica, but his love of nature kept him there. In 1970 Jack and his wife and young daughter ventured to Costa Rica for a 4-month job. They never left. Although life in the jungle with few modern conveniences was a far cry from his native Colorado roots, his ever-growing fascination with the rainforest soon prompted his transformation into environmentalist and naturalist.
Hacienda Barú National Wildlife Refuge - a former cattle ranch and now a well-known ecotourism destination on the southwest coast of Costa Rica - was the result of Jack's decades of dedication to forest ecology. His expertise on biological corridor projects is much sought after, and he is currently president of two environmental organizations, ASANA (Association of Friends of Nature) and FUNDANTA (Foundation for the Path of the Tapir Biological Corridor) .
A natural-born storyteller, Jack's articles have appeared regularly in Costa Rican publications, and he often speaks to environmental, student and ecological traveler groups. His years of living in the rainforest have rendered a multitude of personal experiences, many of which are recounted in his first book, Monkeys Are Made of Chocolate. His newest title, Where Tapirs and Jaguars Once Roamed, is a fascinating look at the ecological and social history of southwestern Costa Rica, including the evolution of Hacienda Barú and the Path of the Tapir.
