| LIST 80 | 10 Reasons Why Cars Suck |
1
Bumper-to-bumper
From 1950 to 1970, the US automobile population grew four times faster than the human population. Today, there are around 200 million cars in America. As a result, we Americans spend 8 billion hours per year stuck in traffic.
2
Cars kill people
During the twentieth century, 250 million Americans were maimed or injured in automobile accidents. Every single day in the US, an average of 121 people are killed in car accidents. The leading cause of death for children aged five to fourteen in New York City is pedestrian automobile accidents.
3
Cars kill animals
Automobiles, SUVs, trucks, and other fossil-burning vehicles kill a million wild animals per week in the US—not counting tens of thousands of family pets.
4
Cars exploit dead animals
Substances like anti-freeze, bio-diesel fuel, hydraulic brake fluid, and asphalt binder are all made with ingredients culled from the carcasses of departed animals.
5
Sprawling for dollars
During the last century, an area equal to all the arable land in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania was paved in the US. This area requires maintenance costing over $200 million a day. (The surreptitious cost of the car culture totals nearly $464 billion a year in the US alone, much of that going to the sustentation of a military presence in the Persian Gulf.)
6
Getting warmer?
Automobiles emit one-quarter of US greenhouse gases.
7
Oil in our veins
The US spends $60 billion per year on foreign oil. Eight million barrels of oil per day are combusted in US cars. That's 450 gallons per person per year.
8
They're all wasted
Cars create 7 billion pounds of unrecycled scrap and waste annually.
9
Leaving rubber
With approximately one billion discarded tires littering our increasingly paved landscape, meditate upon this: Every tire loses one pound of rubber per year, spewing minute grains of rubber into the stratosphere and then back down to find a new home in our water and/or our lungs.
10
Cars are hell
During the 40 days of the (first) Gulf War, 146 Americans died keeping the world safe for petroleum, while at home 4,900 Americans died in motor vehicle accidents.
Mickey Z. is the author of five books and hundreds of articles. His most recent books are: A Gigantic Mistake: Articles and Essays for Your Intellectual Self-Defense (Prime Books) and Seven Deadly Spins: Exposing the Lies Behind War Propaganda (Common Courage Press). Contact him at mzx2@earthlink.net. 