PHA-Exchange> UN Adopts Traffic Resolution amid Dire Mortality Warnings]

[claudio at hcmc.netnam.vn]

--from Louis Reynolds <reynolds at ich.uct.ac.za> -----

["Carmageddon: - the hidden war between cars and people"] 

> UN General Assembly Adopts Traffic Resolution amid Dire Mortality 
> Warnings 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> New York, Oct 27 2005 4:00PM
> 
> Amid predictions that worldwide traffic deaths will soon out- strip 
> the deadly scourge of AIDS, the United Nations General As- sembly 
> resolved to mark a yearly day of remembrance for road victims, and 
> called on nations globally to improve road safety.

Deaths due to motor vehicles already exceed those due to armed conflict
by several fold: annual traffic deaths number more than 1,2 million,
those due to armed conflict around 310,000, according to a 2001 WHO
report. Most of those killed and maimed do not belong to the car-owning
classes; overwhelmingly they are from poor countries and poor
communities in rich countries. In 2002, for example, of all children
killed, 96% were from low-income and middle-income countries, and in
rich countries the risk for children in families without a car is twice
that of children in car owning families (Roberts I, Norton R, Jackson R,
Dunn R, Hassall I. Effect of environmental factors on risk of injury of
child pedestrians by motor vehicles: a case-control study. BMJ
1995;310:91-4).

Yet this carnage on the roads is only one theatre in the largely hidden
global war between motor vehicles [mainly private cars] and people.
There are at least 4 theatres in this war in addition to the carnage on
the roads.

1. Oil wars, such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the repeated
attempts to overthrow President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, the botched
coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea, and the struggles between communities
and oil companies in Nigeria and Latin America.

We can expect oil wars to escalate for 3 reasons. Firstly, the world’s
oil production is predicted to peak soon (if it hasn’t already).
Secondly, demand will continue to increase, particularly in the light of
rapid motorisation of China, India, Latin America and Africa. This will
mean massive increases in oil prices, with far-reaching effects on the
daily lives of everyone. Third, the US sees control of oil as a major
strategic issue in terms of its foreign policies. The west coast of
Africa with its oil reserves is likely to be a contested area in future
oil wars.

An additional point about oil wars is that the casualties are not seen
as motor vehicle fatalities as most of them are.


2. Global ecocide: the effect of cars on global warming and climate
change. Climate change, driven in part by heavy carbon dioxide emissions
from combustion of oil, already kills an estimated 160,000 people each
year—many more than terrorism (World Watch Institute 2005. State of the
World 2005 Trends and Facts — Changing the Oil Economy) Motor vehicles
are a major contributor to greenhouse gases.

3. Social ecocide: the war against communal life and culture. This is
perhaps the most subtle and pervasive theatre of the war. It has many
facets, it is impossible to go into them in detail. Fundamentally, the
motor car is a vehicle of inequality, and the only way to change this
is to limit it to bicycle speeds, as Ivan Illich has pointed out very
clearly. As he said, "Beyond a critical speed, no one can save time
without forcing another to lose it."

Our growing radical dependency on cars stems from the theory that the
motor car promotes our rights to personal mobility and freedom. We only
have to look at what happened when large numbers of people got into
their cars to evacuate New Orleans and Houston recently to get an idea
of how the world would look if everyone old enough to drive a car
claimed that right.

We must pursue transport policies based on bicycles and good public
transport, and rid ourselves of cars. it won't be easy, because of the
massive vested interests around this issue, including the car industry,
big oil, the road industry, etc etc. But probably the biggest obstacle
is ourselves and our car addiction.





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