One of the problems that faces the whole debate regarding global warming is that western (or first world) countries have had the opportunity to go through their industrial revolutions – spouting as much CO2 into the atmosphere as they like due to, at the time, complete ignorance of the negative impact.
Now, we’re telling other countries such as China and India (both very rapidly developing nations) to politely ‘do not use the technology we did, instead invest in much more expensive, but more environmentally sound policies/technologies’. The irony is that many of these countries, for travel at least, do exactly that. Go to less developed nations and you’ll see horses and carts, cattle, bicycles and just about everything else merging onto roads.
However, what you’ll start to see in future are more cars. It’s understandable. Global consumerism pushes brands around the world 24/7. Whether it’s Man United or Coca-Cola, some things are universally known. The car is a concept that will be familiar with just about everyone around the world, even if they’ve never driven one.
My point is this – if you were in a poor nation, do we really have the right to tell you that you can’t have a cheap car because it drains resources and further depletes our world, whilst churning out gasses that may (or indeed may not) be having an impact on climate change?
The car is much more than just a symbol. It allows you, should you so wish, to go from the very North of Scotland all the way to the other side of the world. This is what driving is about. Those who say ‘I just have my car to get from A-B‘ might well be telling the truth, but that fact is still a million miles away from the woman or man in Africa who has to journey on foot for hours to get clean water.
So yes, I feel lucky today. And so should you.
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