In 1975, the New York Times reported on a growing number of transmission problems in Pontiacs, Buicks, Cadillacs, and several other General Motors cars. The source of the trouble was a recent law against hunting whales, whose oil had been used in G.M.’s automatic transmission fluid. “The whale oil was used because of its anti-rust qualities, the company said, but a new transmission formula had to be used starting on 1973 models.” Without whale oil, fittings in the cooling unit began to corrode, causing substantial damage to the cars.These days, it sometimes seems as if the entire whaling industry existed