If there was any doubt of the disastrous effect of cars on our health and the well-being of the planet, the rocket scientists have removed it.
NASA has determined that automobiles are the largest net contributor to climate change pollution.
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The NASA study reports:
?Cars, buses, and trucks release pollutants and greenhouse gases that promote warming, while emitting few aerosols that counteract it. In contrast, the industrial and power sectors release many of the same gases–with a larger contribution to radiative forcing–but they also emit sulfates and other aerosols that cause cooling by reflecting light and altering clouds?"
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Now, we all know a lot of work is going into creating greener cars. However, as someone trained in sustainable urban planning, I think getting out of the automobile habit altogether would be a great step forward for our society and the world. It would address this #1 climate change (and ocean acidification) concern, but it would also help address obesity tremendously, the economy, and other things. As Alex Steffen of Worldchanging writes, ?we already know that the way to solve the problem of cars is to build better cities.?
I think we should take this opportunity to consider how we could live without cars, how we could help create a transformation of our transportation and urban systems. This is one of the first steps we need to take to address critical societal concerns of each the environment, health and the economy.
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Now, we all know a lot of work is going into creating greener cars. However, as someone trained in sustainable urban planning
I don’t believe that for one minute. You only have one plan…and one plan only…to Build more railroads…PERIOD.
If you don’t like cars…then PLEASE LEAVE THIS WEB-SITE. YOU’RE NOT WELCOME HERE.
See now this is what I was talking about in the other thread when I said your posts are borderline trolling. You’re on a car forum. Expecting us to give up cars is unrealistic, and you know it, and so really you’re over the troll line with this one.
People aren’t going to give up personal transportation machines. That’s simply not going to happen. I doubt many of us here would mind switching from the internal combustion model to, say, electric, once you can make electric cars as fast to fuel and with equivalent range.
Asking us to consider how we can live without cars is, frankly, moronic. We could do it, but we’d have to go back to lifestyles of the 1800’s because we don’t have non-car technology that could make us as mobile as we must be in order to maintain our society.
Your “no cars at all!” idea will work once we invent the Star Trek transporter beam, but not until.
Heading says “Cars.”
Body of text says, “cars, busses, and trucks.”
Not quite the same.
If you think you can survive with cars, busses, and trucks, I wish you the best of luck.
Do you mean WITHOUT Cars, busses and trucks???
I don’t think too many are surprised by this. But if you think everyone is suddenly going to give up their cars because of it your wrong. We are heading in the right direction to make them more enviro friendly & less dependent on fossil fuels, but it’s going to take time to perfect it. We have to find the right balance between “green” & “consumer accepted”.
I strongly recommend that we all stop responding to this individual’s posts. I, for one, have had enough. I don’t harass him trying to get him to drive, I’m tired of his repetative posts trying to convince me that the world will be saved if I ditch my car.
Did they ever figure out the amount of “greenhouse” gases that escaped when Eyjafjallaj?kull erupted last year? I have hunch that it was a lot. Perhaps we should outlaw volcanos, as they are clearly bad for the enviroment.