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All our innovation hasn't cleaned up auto pollution
By Wang Yong |
September 7, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THIS is an age in which our society, with seeming pride, is polluting itself to death.
One-fifth of Chinese cities are now suffering severe air pollution largely because of car emissions, and yet more cars are being worshipped as a sign of status, a vehicle for a happier life.
Liu Zhiquan, a senior official of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said on Sunday that car emissions had caused city smog across China. He did not say whether Shanghai was on the "blacklist," but there's no cause to be upbeat.
In these past few days Shanghai certainly has enjoyed extremely clean skies, but wouldn't Shanghai's skies have been bluer had the city curbed the explosion of private cars onto its streets? As in most other Chinese cities, private cars in Shanghai have multiplied in number and size as a much-touted engine of economic growth and source of greater happiness.
Such are the times in which we live - an era in which many people, governments for that matter, pay only lip service to fighting pollution. Even Liu Zhiquan acknowledged that cars had "improved people's life" although they polluted the air. But how can one's life be improved if he or she cannot breathe clean air every day?
Liu's remarks boil down to this: pollution can be pardoned in the name of "progress." In other words, cars are here to stay although by nature of the internal combustion engine they pollute nature. Policy makers like Liu dare not propose a comeback of pedestrian or cyclist culture, although it's the best way to reduce air pollution. Even so-called clean-energy cars still pollute the air, at least by generating heat waves. They take up space and their manufacturing process uses vast amount of energy.
In today's lead opinion article ("A hungry pack of wolves defeats a business lion"), you see how Chinese companies are praised for technological innovation. But what matters most to a society is innovation of the mind, not of technology.
Like other car-dependent nations, China lacks innovation of the mind when it comes to curbing car pollution. In the United States, it's "cash for clunkers"; in China, it's "replacing old cars with new ones." All nations stop at developing clean energy and none dare to say no to cars.
I would call so-called clean-energy cars a superficial innovation, because these new cars do not fundamentally stem air pollution. A car is a car, it's never as clean as a fair pair of feet.
An age of superficial innovation and actual pollution indeed. If a society moves beyond technological innovation to embrace mind innovation, the earth would be much cleaner: either eliminate or limit cars.
The fact that such a simple solution has been sidelined in most nations shows how badly consumerism and growth fetishism have polluted people's mind in an age in which to live is to pollute and to pollute is to live.
Walking is the best way for one to stay healthy, and yet many people today refuse to walk, deeming it shameful when one can ride in a car. In this age, we innovate this gadget and that, but our air has never been dirtier and our legs have never been weaker.
One-fifth of Chinese cities are now suffering severe air pollution largely because of car emissions, and yet more cars are being worshipped as a sign of status, a vehicle for a happier life.
Liu Zhiquan, a senior official of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said on Sunday that car emissions had caused city smog across China. He did not say whether Shanghai was on the "blacklist," but there's no cause to be upbeat.
In these past few days Shanghai certainly has enjoyed extremely clean skies, but wouldn't Shanghai's skies have been bluer had the city curbed the explosion of private cars onto its streets? As in most other Chinese cities, private cars in Shanghai have multiplied in number and size as a much-touted engine of economic growth and source of greater happiness.
Such are the times in which we live - an era in which many people, governments for that matter, pay only lip service to fighting pollution. Even Liu Zhiquan acknowledged that cars had "improved people's life" although they polluted the air. But how can one's life be improved if he or she cannot breathe clean air every day?
Liu's remarks boil down to this: pollution can be pardoned in the name of "progress." In other words, cars are here to stay although by nature of the internal combustion engine they pollute nature. Policy makers like Liu dare not propose a comeback of pedestrian or cyclist culture, although it's the best way to reduce air pollution. Even so-called clean-energy cars still pollute the air, at least by generating heat waves. They take up space and their manufacturing process uses vast amount of energy.
In today's lead opinion article ("A hungry pack of wolves defeats a business lion"), you see how Chinese companies are praised for technological innovation. But what matters most to a society is innovation of the mind, not of technology.
Like other car-dependent nations, China lacks innovation of the mind when it comes to curbing car pollution. In the United States, it's "cash for clunkers"; in China, it's "replacing old cars with new ones." All nations stop at developing clean energy and none dare to say no to cars.
I would call so-called clean-energy cars a superficial innovation, because these new cars do not fundamentally stem air pollution. A car is a car, it's never as clean as a fair pair of feet.
An age of superficial innovation and actual pollution indeed. If a society moves beyond technological innovation to embrace mind innovation, the earth would be much cleaner: either eliminate or limit cars.
The fact that such a simple solution has been sidelined in most nations shows how badly consumerism and growth fetishism have polluted people's mind in an age in which to live is to pollute and to pollute is to live.
Walking is the best way for one to stay healthy, and yet many people today refuse to walk, deeming it shameful when one can ride in a car. In this age, we innovate this gadget and that, but our air has never been dirtier and our legs have never been weaker.
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