Unsafe at Any Price ...

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“Transportation has the fastest growing carbon emissions of any economic sector and automobiles are largely to blame with more than 600 million passenger vehicles now cruising the world’s roads. ”

“Today, the real task is … to create … a ‘people’s transport system.’ Addressing the climate crisis requires entirely new approaches to moving people and goods–one not based on cars and trucks. The US created an automobile culture during the 20th century at enormous long term costs. The automobile brings with it not just greenhouse gas emissions but an entire infrastructure that is devastating to the social and natural environment–roads, the oil industry, urban congestion, and suburban sprawl. It’s a system the US and other rich countries now must transform and one which the developing world can still avoid.

Public policies and new technologies should be directed at developing the least polluting mode of transport at each scale of distance. That means promoting walking and biking, especially in cities; building new and better public transit systems; and revitalizing intercity rail for both passengers and freight. And since, for the foreseeable future, automobiles and trucks will continue to play a major transportation role, developing and mandating low emission vehicles remains a key goal.”

In the meantime, “the prospect of millions of new cars spells an exponential rise in carbon emissions as well as other kinds of pollutants.” “As a result of slumping sales, struggling Western car companies are, according to the New York Times, ‘looking to see where the cost-obsessed ethos of the developing world can help their bottom line.’ On the same day Tata unveiled its new Nano, Ford Motors announced plans to more than double its investment in India–raising its total stake to $875 million–to make the country a regional hub for small-car manufacturing, compete for the fast-growing local low-cost market, and to build a new engine manufacturing plant.”

“We need to publicly denounce US and EU based multinational companies for compensating for decades of poor investment and design decisions by now roaming the globe in search of opportunities to profit on lower emissions standards in developing countries. The advantage of such campaigns is that many of these multinational companies are headquartered in the cities where we live, presenting concrete opportunities for action. The environmental and labor movements might demand, for example, that US and EU based companies be penalized unless they agree to meet uniform global fuel standards in all countries where their cars are manufactured and sold.”

“Developed countries’ environmental critiques and campaigns need to start at home. Politicians, labor unions and environmental activists have a responsibility not to brandish global warming as a stick to bash workers and consumers in India or China. Instead the argument for progressive global warming policy must begin with the acknowledgment of the destructive policies of our home governments and corporations; this includes taking responsibility for developed countries majority contribution to the climate crisis.”

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(Note - Those quotations are in a different order in the original article.)

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Unsafe at Any Price ...

Carp Ridge Ecowellness Centre (CREWC)

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