The headline in the NY Times this morning tells us that China is planning to become the leading producer of hybrid and all-electric cars within the next three years. And don't think they can't do it. Five thoustand auto engineers and 5,000 battery engineers are living in a high-tech ghetto of 15 yellow 18-story apartment buildings in Shenzhen, and they are busily working to accomplish this goal for their country. They earn less than $600 a month, and that includes benefits.
China is offering hefty subsidies for buyers, and they would like to raise their annual production rate to 500,000 hybrid or all-electric cars and buses by the end of 2011. The U.S. has its own comparable program, of course, and the Department of Energy will get $25 billion to develop electric-powered cars and improve battery technology, plus another $2 billion for battery development.
China says that its intention--besides creating jobs and exports--is to fight urban pollution and reduce its dependence on foreign oil. The problem is that the electricity that runs cars has to be produced somehow--a fact which electric car enthusiasts often seem to overlook--and China gets the bulk of its electricity from coal, the dirtiest source of energy for our planet.
And then there was the news in March, coming from India: Tata Motors is launching its Nano, a small car that will cost only $2,200 in the U.S., for the cheapest model. It is being touted as the "new way"--the smaller and cheaper form of transportation for the masses. They plan to begin selling the cars this July, and will market an eco-friendly version which uses compressed air as fuel, as well as an electric version. Tata is planning for an initial production target of 250,000 units a year. Millions of Indians who never thought they could own a car will now have a chance of doing so.
I have to ask a simple question: when emissions from the automobile are quickly ruining the planet, why are we human creatures going to produce automobiles of any kind for everyone on earth? Shouldn't we instead be working very hard to create alternative models of transportation? Shouldn't we be learning how to live and work in a more circumscribed area?
On top of the not-inconsequential problem of global warming, there is the on-going slaughter on our highways, which nobody seems particularly worried about. Each year 43,000 people die on our roads. You know some of them. And 3,000,000 more are injured. Chances are that you, at one time or another, have been among them. Some of these injuries are devastating. In India, 90,000 people are killed every year on the roads. I hesitate to think what will happen when hundreds of thousands of little Nanos are added to the mix.
When will we understand that the problem is not (1) how to live the same way we've always lived, but more cheaply, and it's not (2) encouraging everyone in the world to follow the American Dream. Our problem is to actually change the way we're living. And the U.S. has the responsiblity to lead in this effort, for we have been leading in the wrong direction for our planet, for far too long.
Why, oh why, are we behaving like lemmings rushing to the sea? What will it take to wake us up?
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