Mickey Z. -- World News Trust
Sept. 20, 2006 -- There's an interesting courtroom battle shaping up out in California.
The state is attempting to institute new emissions standards for
greenhouse gases. Such regulations could reduce exhaust emissions 25 percent in cars and light trucks and 18 percent in SUVs. California already has
the toughest standards in the nation -- standards adopted by 10 states,
including New York. This new proposal would surpass federal emissions
standards and is likely to eventually raise the national bar even
higher. Guess who's not happy about this?
Among
others, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, and the Alliance of
Automobile Manufacturers have filed suit, claiming that California is
in violation of the federal Clean Air Act because the state did not get
a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency. In other words, the
automobile giants are siding with the EPA and the Clean Air Act to
crush regulations designed to address issues of global warming and
human health. You can add this situation to the top ten list of why
cars suck. Here are the other nine reasons:
2. Bumper-to-bumper
From
1950 to 1970, the U.S. automobile population grew four times faster
than the human population. Today, there are around 200 million cars in
America. As a result, we Americans spend 8 billion hours a year stuck
in traffic.
3. Cars kill people
During
the twentieth century, 250 million Americans were maimed or injured in
automobile accidents. Every single day in the United States, an average of 121
people are killed in car accidents. The leading cause of death for
children aged 5 to 14 in New York City is pedestrian automobile
accidents.
4. Cars kill animals
Automobiles,
SUVs, trucks, and other fossil field-burning vehicles kill a million
wild animals per week in the United States -- not counting tens of thousands of
family pets.
5. Sprawling for dollars
During
the last century, an area equal to all the arable land in Ohio,
Indiana, and Pennsylvania was paved in the United States. This area requires
maintenance costing more than $200 million a day. (The surreptitious cost of
the car culture totals nearly $464 billion a year in the United States,
much of that going to the sustentation of a military presence in the
Persian Gulf.)
6. Getting warmer?
Automobiles emit one-quarter of U.S. greenhouse gases.
7. Oil in our veins
The
United States spends $60 billion a year on foreign oil. Eight million barrels
of oil a day is combusted in U.S. cars. That's 450 gallons per person,
per year.
8. They're all wasted
Cars create 7 billion pounds of un-recycled scrap and waste annually.
9. Leaving rubber
With
approximately one billion discarded tires littering our increasingly
paved landscape, meditate upon this: Every tire loses one pound of
rubber per year, spewing minute grains of rubber into the stratosphere
and then back down to find a new home in our water and/or our lungs.
10. Cars are hell
During
the 40 days of the (first) Gulf War, 146 Americans died keeping the
world safe for petroleum while at home, 4,900 Americans died in motor
vehicle accidents.
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Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.
