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February 2, 2008

Another reason why we need to break our fossil fuel habit… 

The two-cylinder, $2,500 car produced by India’s Tata motor was much heralded in the press a few weeks ago. But there is a grey lining on this silver cloud. 

China is expected to nearly quadruple its fuel consumption for motor vehicles by 2030, according to the Energy information Agency. In India it's expected to rise nearly three-fold.  

By comparison, growth in the U.S. is only expected to be about 40 percent, although fuel use in the U.S. will still be more than twice that of China thanks largely to the bigger vehicles we drive. 

Sales of all types of cars and trucks are growing in India and China - as they are in other developing economies like Mexico, Brazil and throughout the Middle East.  

--CNN.com 

 

As more people in India and China catch the West’s addiction to gasoline, pollution (and therefore global warming) will increase, and oil prices will continue to rise. 

The only long-term solution is to commit the fossil-fuel-driven engine to the scrap heap of history. Easy? Heck no. But the world doesn’t have a choice. And don’t tell me that it can’t be done. However, the effort will require government involvement. Hopefully the new president, whoever he or she is, will take on fossil fuel problem in a resolute manner.  

Let us not forget that the internet, which we all know and love and take for granted today, owes its beginnings to a Cold War-era government initiative: ARPNET. Once the government got the ball rolling, private industry picked up the ball and developed the internet as it exists today.  

Let us sing the praises of the free market; but let us not forget that there is also place for (carefully measured) government involvement. And the fossil fuel crisis is one of those places.