Consequences of Cars

Americans love cars; there are now more cars then there are people with drivers licenses, which is yet another example of America's exceptional wealth in comparison with the rest of the world. Those cars allow Americans to travel wherever and whenever they please thanks to the vision of President Eisenhower, who fifty years ago began construction of the interstate highway system. Many people have praised his vision for they believe that this network of roads has helped to make America into the rich successful nation that it is today by helping to increase the pace of domestic commerce. They are likely right on this account, but that is by no means the whole story. Having a system of transportation that relies on the car comes with its problems. In their present incarnation cars burn fossil fuels thereby creating pollution that is causing the earth to warm, but ultimately may lead to global climate change that could turn England into Siberia and make New York City disappear. Already many are arguing that the warming of the Earth's oceans is producing "super-storms", Katrina being an example, the storms that flooded Pennsylvania and D.C. another, that have the potential to cause billions of dollars in damage and kill thousands. No one is of course quite sure what the total effect of this warming of the earth's oceans is of course, but there can be no argumnet that the earth is warming given all the scientific data. It is warm waters that bread hurricanes and generally the warmer the waters the bigger and more powerful the hurricane. The extraction and transportation of oil is also hazardous to the environment, Exxon-Valdez being only the most extreme example. Leaks and spills are common, though mostly in smaller amounts, and the drilling process itself also routinely leads to the destruction of an environment because it is so invasive and requires so much heavy equipment that needs space to operate. The environment is an afterthought in the oil extraction, processing and transportation businesses. Right now there is no more profitable kind of business than oil, and the goal of profit attainment drives many nations, including America, to make it as easy as possible for oil companies to extract oil, the environmental consequences notwithstanding. In fact few questions are asked when there is oil to be had. Does it matter that Saudia Arabia has a horribly repressive regime that is the birth place of Osama Bin Laden and many of the 9/11 terrorists when the U.S. is discussing oil deals with the Saudis? Of course not. This has been the American attitude to the whole oil rich Middle East for a long time now. America does not care what you do behind your borders so long as you get us the oil. Now we are reliant on a horribly unstable region whose governments have for some thirty years now turned a blind eye toward a vast international terror movement that has developed inside their borders. Terror has driven up the price on gas, as has the decline in readily avaliable reserves, which means that profit margins are decreasing and American households are squeezed to the point where they save virtually nothing. Certainly the American economy remains strong, yet the threat of economic collapse is by no means remote thanks to the height of America's trade deficit and the possibility of energy becomming unavaliable thanks to the destabilization of the middle east. The trade deficit results largely from America's need to import so much oil. If it grows because of an increase in oil prices then it might cut the legs out from under the American economy. Even if it does not come to all that, energy prices are not going down, and so a reevaluation of a system built on cheap gas might be in order. Beyond energy and environmental concerns, cars also destroy cities. Super highways have been built right through the center of many cities cutting a huge swath of land out of them, dividing once vibrant neighborhoods. People like being around other people; it's a pretty simple concept. The most popular cities in America to visit are places like New York, Boston, D.C., New Orleans and San Francisco because those are places where you can walk and see other people. European cities achieve their cache among world travelers for much the same reason. Developers have realsed this in their attempt to revitalize downtowns by building walker friendly malls. But America is still a long way from where it was 50 years ago when many big cities had nearly twice the population of today. In the intervening decades people have moved to the suburbs for security and more space largely beacuse the car allowed them to commute further. Security and space are all well and good, but the suburbs are boring. Instead of the constant communal carnival of the old urban neighborhood, life in the suburbs happens largely in doors. Sitting on the stoop is considdered odd suburban behavior, but for someone who grew up in an urban environment sitting on the stoop makes a lot of sense because there is always something going on on the street, something to see. Sitting on the stoop is much the same thing as watching T.V. Perhaps that is why reality T.V. has become so popular. There is so little real drama for people to see in their ordinary lives in the suburbs, that they must watch T.V. to get their dose. This is pure speculation of course, but there have been studies indicating that Americans are lonlier now than ever before, and considering the highly dispersed and closed off way in which many of us live it is little suprise. The car has been one of the most important forces of change in American society since the turn of the century, and it has helped to make America one of the wealthiest and most successful nations on earth, but it's costs have created an America that polutes more than any other nation on earth, that is more dependant on foreign oil than any other. America, with Canada, Australia, and to a degree, South Africa, is a higly suburban nation. The suburbs are perhaps to often criticiazed for being devoid and boring, but go to time square and then go to weschester county and tell me which place is more interesting.