LETTERS: Car solutions must be global Crisis of millions of cars
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.As stated in your leading article "Nothing fair about cars" (19 May), transport policy cannot continue as at present. But the detrimental effect on health of car usage is not the only issue: perhaps of even more concern is the contribution to global warming through carbon dioxide emissions. In the UK, 24 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions comes from transport of which 21 per cent is from road transport. This is forecast to rise to more than 26 per cent by the year 2000.
The car is one of the largest threats to the health of the planet. There are over 700 million of them, roughly 8 per cent of the world's population has a car, and many more aspire to owning one. China and India alone have the potential to add 300 million each to the world's car fleet in the next decade. While the car and oil companies may view this with excitement the impact on the global environment would be disastrous.
In terms of energy used, a diesel car averaging 30mpg carrying the driver uses 5.93 mega joules per passenger kilometre (mj/km) compared to a half- full 70-seater bus that uses 0.78 mj/km. We need radical solutions to curb the threat vast numbers of cars cause to the health of us all. This must apply not just to the UK but globally.
Charlie Trousdell
Brighton, East Sussex
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments