“Let’s abandon this disastrous experiment.”
The wonderful thing about Guardian environmental columnist George Monbiot is that he never pulls his punches. Twenty years ago he wrote:
What will it take to persuade us to stop using the world as our punchbag? If we don’t have the political will even to remove bullbars from cars, though we can show that they kill scores of children while serving no useful purpose, how on earth can we begin to remove cars from the streets, waste from the food chain, fossil fuels from the grid? The world is dying, and people are killing themselves with laughter.
Bullbars in New York City/ Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0
Twenty years later, we are still using the world as a punching bag and still have bullbars killing children. And he is still telling us that we have to get cars off the streets, writing in the Guardian: Cars are killing us. Within 10 years, we must phase them out.
Let’s abandon this disastrous experiment, recognise that this 19th-century technology is now doing more harm than good, and plan our way out of it. Let’s set a target to cut the use of cars by 90% over the next decade. Yes, the car is still useful – for a few people it’s essential. It would make a good servant. But it has become our master, and it spoils everything it touches. It now presents us with a series of emergencies that demand an emergency response.
Ellen Macarthur Foundation/CC BY 2.0