My reply to fourth-grader Tatum Dunton, [who wrote about Strive Not to Drive Week] in a letter to the editor [“Thank the Earth by Striving Not to Drive,” May 20, Xpress] is to tell her what a wonderful and freedom-enhancing invention the car was.
Before cars, hundreds of horses would each leave up to 40 pounds of waste daily in the streets. How environmental was that?
Cars enabled Americans for the first time to leave their small worlds and travel beyond. Most people before cars never ventured more than a few miles beyond their birthplace. They could now work farther from home and visit relatives in another state. Take vacations somewhere else.
Damaging the earth? In other countries, the air is so full of smoke [that] it is unhealthy. Here, the air is much cleaner and becoming more so all the time. We do not live in a perfect world, but life here is far better today than at any time in history, thanks in large part to the technology that many decry. Thanks for listening, Tatum.
— Robert Parker
Hickory
One cannot commit suicide with a modern car because they burn so cleanly, that the majority of the byproducts coming from the exhaust is water vapor. Saying that though, the modernization of the infrastructure in Asheville has been neglected to the point that all the idling cars during rush hour will add to pollution. And while many have deal with it, they squarely do not hold those accountable especially some long time members of council. Smith especially is to blame for the disaster that is the Smokey Park bridge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide_poisoning. Wikipedia says that even modern cars produce enough CO2 to kill in an enclosed space.
You tell ’em, Robert!
“Here, the air is much cleaner and becoming more so all the time.”
So that haze that can be seen as one looks off into the horizon is clean(er) air? It wasn’t there 30 years ago.
the haze is the same summertime humid day hazy that is usually present here all summer…
vehicle emissions have nothing to do with it…
you people are paranoid… get over it.
Nope. I’m not paranoid…just observant. The haze was not there 30 years ago. It has steadily grown worse each year and it can be seen during all seasons.