But the NYT editorial page goes ahead and does just that. As I posted a few days ago, we cannot deny the benefits of automobile transportation to the developing world merely because those who have already benefited from affordable cars now realize the costs of automobile transportation. I guess the NYT editorial board has decided that the benefits to living residents of India are not worth the costs to U.S. great-grandchildren.
The sad fact is that the world has changed since Americans celebrated the egalitarian breakthrough of the Ford Model T. We know now that gas-driven automobiles do terrible damage to the environment, and the notion of loosing millions upon millions of new carbon emitters on our planet is not something to celebrate.
How can we decide now, ex post, that the incalculable benefits of car ownership have not been worth the toll on the evironment? Put differently, suppose that there is a child in India today who could become a great scientist and make great strides in reversing environmental damage. However, this child needs to get an education and cannot get to the nearest university without a car.
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1. Posted by James Lee Vann on January 17, 2008 @ 15:17 | Permalink
The NYT editorial board is so silly! Perhaps they should look at whu people wanted automobiles in the first place? Can they imagine the toll on the enviroment if we all rode horses around New York City? Think of the mess from waste, alone! Then ad to that the cost of grain to feed all these horses- and the fuel that it would take to produce taht grain!
Automoblies are still way more efficient than horses- and cost a lot less, too!
2. Posted by Jake on January 18, 2008 @ 22:41 | Permalink
Christine is right and the NY Times is misguided. I'm less concerned, however, about those who would deny automobiles to citizens of developing nations, than those who would deny automobiles to Americans.
3. Posted by Cliff on January 21, 2008 @ 20:12 | Permalink
The real solution, as we all know, is not reducing the amount of automobiles we drive, but is making them more efficient.
I have a 4 door 99 Saturn that I paid 5K for used. It gets approx. 30 MPG in town and 40 on the Hwy, and I just want to puke everytime I see an ad for a 20-30K brand new vehicle that gets a whopping 33 MPG on the Hwy. We can all do better. In the aggregate, we just choose not to. Period.
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