1.5 Million cars per month...........

Tam Tam Audio on the way?

Dear Don,

It makes next to no difference what any of us do to try to cut Carbon emissions with news like this.

There is no way we can expect the Chinese to deny themselves cars when we have had them for a Century in the West ...

I only hope that the Chinese are significantly faster learners about the state of the planet than we have shown ourselves in the West over the last forty or fifty years, during which period it was clear to some with a long view that the then [and still current] policy of ever increasing population and material consumption would prove both unsustainable and potentially destructive to the planet Earth.

As you know this is something I first discussed in 1974 with the late Arnold Darlington - eminent biologist - and this changed my life view as a then eleven year old. It was I who initiated the conversation, and Mr. Darlington simply said that I would be shown to be right to have concerns of the gravest sort. 

This was long before the Green Movement was widely know, or certainly not known at all to an eleven year old school boy. I worked it out for myself before the lecture, and I plucked up the courage to see Mr. Darlington afterwards. The lecture itself was on the newly arrived Dutch Elm Disease.

It is no consolation to me that I shall almost certainly have died before the worst of the coming unknown and unknowable consequences of this ever growing and even more consuming population of humans does bring tthe ecology of the Earth to its knees ...

I wish that I had one more name in the middle. ... Malthus.

ATB from George

I think there were 1.5 million cars parked on the freeways of Chicago when I was trying to get to O'hare yesterday. Why people sign up for that existence continues to baffle me.

The motorcar is the [US] American dream of advertised freedom and individual expression ... Strangely advertising is just like cheap perfume - very powerful.

Apparently it has even worked in China, which might not have been expected. Poor Chinese. Poor planet Earth.

ATB from George

A year or two ago I received immediate criticism on a forum for saying something along the lines of "If the UK ceased to exist tomorrow, China would have more than made up for our emissions within a few months." 

I'm saving  fair few squids on heating with this mild November weather. Win Win!

The US and Eastern Canada are more than making up for your mild weather with pretty ridiculous early-season cold, and heavy snowfalls in some areas.

So global warming is a thing of the past....................

I think that the US introduced about 1.2 million new cars per month last year, but many of those were replacements for older, existing cars, whilst most of China's were new entrants to the world of motoring.

And in other news, Chicago's traffic was flowing smoothly at 2:00am this morning, leading to the conclusion that traffic congestion in the city is a thing of the past. Meanwhile, a wave went out at Bondi beach leading to forecasts that the oceans were draining away and Australians would soon be able to walk to New Zealand. Soon after, another wave came in, leading to forecasts that Australia would be completely under water in 48 hours.

George, it shouldn't be a surprise - advertising definitely works (companies invest billions in it - and they wouldn't spend so much if it didn't change behaviour); it is the engine which powers modern capitalism. It's a universal language that plays on our dreams and desires - and it works everywhere: in China, the US, Palestine and the favelas of Rio.

What IS surprising is that so much bad (not just good) advertising works.

It's interesting - cars are often sold on the fact that they confer freedom and independence. True, perhaps in the wide open spaces of America, but the reality for so many is sitting for hours on end in gridlocked fume-choked cities, waiting to crawl forward a few yards. This will be the case I suspect in China.

Also, I wouldn't worry about the planet - it, and most of the life it is home to, will be here long after we are all gone.

...that's what shortcuts and side-streets are for. Or the CTA "L" trains, to which one may ride to either Midway or O'Hare airports....

I know, That's the media for you. News stories are more avidly reported and consumed when portayed as "bad news" than when portayed as "good news". Sorting fact from fiction is difficult if TV news bulletins are the primary source of information.