There was one moment at the EcoCity World Summit last month that I thought to myself, “Here we go again!” A woman stepped to the microphone in the Q&A period and roughly stated, “We’ve recently banned BPA from baby bottles because we’ve seen their harmful effect, when are we going to ban cars for the havoc they wreak on the environment?”
The extremism of this statement is what made the initial environmental movement a “left” issue, alienating a large percentage of the populous due to unrealistic expectations. We certainly can’t ban the car, particularly in the United States where the size of our country dictates the need for personal transportation vehicles.
The market will dictate a shift, and it’s thankfully already occurring. More people than ever are using mass transit, and SUVs are sitting on car lots. The move is on, and we may be seeing an inflection point. Our love for the personal vehicle is being trumped by the high expense that we pay both economically and environmentally.
Read this interesting opinion piece from The Philadelphia Inquirer for more on this subject.
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The Inquirer article was great. Thank you for sharing it. This is exactly the kind of thing that I’ve been hoping would happen given the rising gas prices.
Hello from Sweden, just wanted to say great article! I try to visit your blog atleast once a week