The hope of 2009 has turned to despair. The inactivists, fuelled with corporate money, who have a vested interest (trillions of dollars of investments worldwide), are winning. This doesn’t mean that they will win. The question is whether we will win in time before the devastating effects of global warming are irreversible.

In the meantime we need to start winning more battles before the war on carbon is won. Awareness of global warming has been a resounding success. The next important step is to start winning the government policy and individual lifestyle wars.

One such war is the car lifestyle. More people each year are driving around the world. Over 52 million vehicles were created in 2009 alone, despite a recession. Twenty percent of carbon emissions are created from vehicles. This isn’t even including the indirect emissions from vehicles (paving roads, industries who make vehicle parts or who benefit from vehicle sales etc.) Vehicles are killing the earth.

They are killing people too. Motor vehicles kill 1.2 million people around the world each year, while 50 million each year are injured. Only World Wars (I and II) killed as many. Yet we drive on.

We have been conditioned to drive. Twenty percent of advertising world-wide is devoted to convince you to drive. In many instances the ads insinuate that by driving you are somehow helping the environment. This is a deadly lie.

Think about it. Every fifth ad you have seen on TV, ever since you were cognitively aware, has been beating this in your head. Three quarters of us have taken the bait, hook line and sinker. Many more probably would too if it weren’t for the great cost of owning a vehicle, estimated at over $8,000 a year.

As the late John Kenneth Galbraith said in his book The Affluent Society, private expenses are encouraged, yet public expenses are vilified. Money put into public transit is bad, money put into cars and trucks is good. The result is a public transit system that sucks. Travel options aren’t really options for most people.  

People like my dad, who grew up in small towns, see the car and truck as part of their freedom and manhood. Even people like me face pressure to own a car. Many job postings say that a car is required. (My pet peeve is when environmental jobs require a car.) I even had an ex-girlfriend’s mom ask me, “When are you going to grow up and buy a car?” I said never. I got dumped a few weeks later.

I even once overheard a teenaged girl on the bus say that she was unsure who she was going to date. After discussing it with her friend, she chose based on who had the nicer car. This is a good part why you see so many ridiculously souped up cars and trucks on the road, driving around like peacocks.

The insanity has got to end. One MP in England is trying to stop this delusion. Colin Challen is trying to put a government warning on all car and truck advertisements, similar to the ones seen on cigarette ads. Speaking to the UK’s Guardian, he said, “You maybe have 25 or 35% of the space of any promotional material given over to a health warning. These warnings would be graded depending on the emissions from the vehicle, with the worst gas-guzzlers carrying the most severe warnings.” I would be in favour of “This vehicle is killing people and the earth,” with corresponding graphic photos.

I would like to encourage you to write to all of the political parties for the same thing here in Canada. This is only a start. Money citizens spend on cars needs to be diverted to creating a kick ass public transit system. I would imagine we would save billions of dollars. 

Things can seem pretty depressing on the environmental front right now, but as Joe Hill, union activist (1879-1915), said before being executed by a firing squad in Utah, “Don’t Mourn, Organize”.