Yes, the real problem is the cars but do you really think they will be eliminated?
Well, no I don’t. I think we are going to pretend that we can get away with half-assing our mitigation and don’t have to make radical adjustments to our way of life, and that decision will end us.
Fuck, we cannot even get consensus on public health measures in a “relatively minor” pandemic.
However one of two things will certainly happen. We will take the minimum steps necessary to keep this planet habitable or we won’t.
Although “eliminated” is the wrong idea. Having a car is not the problem. Building societies that are dependent on cars, so that you can’t go anywhere or do anything without driving, is the problem. Many people in the Netherlands have cars. They just don’t continually need them for everything. And because of that, driving in the Netherlands is way way better than here.
It is unfortunate that a failure to make fundamental changes in our culture and society has already baked a certain level of catastrophe into the coming decades. That is already unavoidable.
Either way, car-dependent culture will either end as a function of a movement toward more sustainable development and management, or it will end because civilization collapses. We get to choose. But there is no third option however comforting the pretense may seem.
So far we have chosen very very poorly.
