... wave goodbye to modern hypermobility?
... move toward an economy of short distance...
Or... maybe the car will remain king because it's the perfect social distancing device?
The automobile is a hundred years old. In a mere century, we’ve manufactured billions of them — and pumped trillions of litres of gasoline to keep them running. The oil and auto industries rose in titanic tandem, both creators of unimaginable wealth and sources of employment for generations of workers, around the world.
And now, looking back, how might we take level account of this gigantic experiment in mobility enhancement? True, it kept the global economy humming for a very long time, and gave us a fast and exciting new way of getting around. But it also made a profound and irrevocable contribution to the crisis of climate that may well wipe us out.
Ah, the open road, a thrumming engine, the wind in our hair — was it all worth it? Or might it have been a Faustian bargain? An exciting new way of living — traded, unwittingly, for a living hell down the road?
AB# 150
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