Rational Technology

     Fire, primitive tools, the wheel; these were the primary innovations of the human mind, the first gleaming lights of technology's dawning. When knowledge could be stored in the written word and mass distributed by means of the printing press, it burst upon us like a fire out of control. Technology advanced the quality of life on this planet. The printing press allowed for moral and ethical ideas to be mass distributed thus increasing human awareness. Agricultural advances fed the hungry and medical mastery relived suffering and extended our life span. It just happened to us, we did not really know it was happening. We did not plan or think about the consequences at all. Few philosophers or great thinkers saw it coming or gave us warning. Technology was a beast that we embraced with out thinking or apprehension. It was a great boon to the quality of human life, but because of indiscriminate use of our increased knowledge, our very existence on this planet has been threatened by global warming, ozone depletion and the molestation of our mountains, forest and oceans. One type of technology with glaring danger is atomic fission with it's spin off , nuclear power. The nuclear threat along with that of chemical and biological weapons are apocalyptic but hidden devastation lurks in very popular devices, for instance, the automobile.

     The environmental costs of the automobile are mind staggering! By examining charts in the Statistical Abstract of the United States it can be ascertained that no other invention has polluted this planet with more carbon dioxide, CFCs, ground level ozone, nitrous oxide, lead, benzene, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, soot from combustion's, aldehydes, and trace metals than the automobile. Oiling drilling destroys many sensitive biological habitats, and adversely effects the economy and culture of indigenous people though out the world. The death of Ken Saro-Wiwa in Nigeria was the direct result of a profit guzzling oil company infringing on the civil, cultural, and economic rights of the Ogoni people. According to the Statistical Record of the Environment 1.5 billion gallons of oil have been spilled into our marine habitats from 1967 to 1990, by accident This does not take into account oil spilled deliberately during bilge pumping and tank washing operations.

     As an environmental activist for Greenpeace I recited poetry at many public events, attended non-violent protests and gave briefings on environmental subjects. A publication that was of great use to me in my endeavors was a Greenpeace special report entitled, "The Environmental Impact of the Car", by Don Mathew and Andrew Rowell. This well written and revealing pamphlet was an inspiration to me. As Mathew and Rowell point out, to build a car: iron, steel, aluminum, copper, and platinum are mined and refined; zinc and lead processed; batteries and paints manufactured; and plastics produced. This process consumes large amounts of energy and human rescues. Junk cars, tires, and batteries are dumped in landfills and incinerated. Roads are made of concrete, sand, gravel and portland cement. Cement kilns burn hazardous waste for fuel causing emissions of dioxins, furans and other toxic pollutants. The increasing dependence on the automobile is causing an acceleration in highway construction, as more and more superhighways are built and widened escalating into a devastating environmental spiral.

     The social effects of the automobile are every bit as devastating as its environmental effects. A pressing sociological problem is the combination of alcohol and driving. Over 265,000 people are killed in accidents every year and countless more are maimed and injured. Our criminal and civil courts are clogged up with cases originating from these accidents. A large portion of our police effort goes to enforcement of traffic laws and car related criminal violations. The personal price paid for the convenience of the automobiles can be clearly seen in the following quote from Energy and Equity by Ivan Illich, found in The Environmental Impact of the Car, "The typical American male devotes more than 1,600 hours a year to his car. He sits in it while it stands and while it stands idling. He parks it and searches for it. He earns the money to put down on it to meet the monthly installments. He works to pay for petrol, tolls, insurance, taxes, and tickets. He spends four of his sixteen waking hours, on the road or gathering rescues for it. And this figure does not take account of other activities dictated by transport: time spent in hospitals traffic courts and garages; time spent watching automobile commercials or attending consumer education meetings to improve the quality of the next buy. The model American puts in 1,600 hours to get 7,500 miles: less than five miles per hour."

     Walk on a city streets  in the early morning hour listen; you will hear sounds from very far away. Walking in the silence, anticipate the noise of an approaching automobile. You will notice how far away it is when you hear its first rumblings, the intensity of its closest approach and the long time it takes for the noise to diminish. Multiply this one hundred thousand times and you can get some idea as to the intensity of noise pollution created by the car. During our peek waking hours there is no escape from that persistent background noise blocking out the sounds of nature.

     Considering the environmental and social impacts of the automobile, I ask each individual to ask themselves, "Is the mobility and convenience of the automobile worth the cost?" Many Americans live in areas where mass transportation is limited or non-existent. Is this because of lack of funding for public transportation or poor community planning or do we sense malice of forethought. Consider this quote from, The Environmental Impact of the car:

     "In the United States the love affair with the car is in fact a arranged marriage, due to the efforts of a group of large corporations (including General Motors, Fire Stone Tire and Rubber, and Mack Truck) purchasing and dismantling over one hundred rail transit systems in 45 US. cities in the 1930's and 1940's."

     It is a paradox that in democratic society, we are allowing big money and special interest to make us slaves to a technology that is slowly destroying us. What are the solutions to the environmental, social and economic dilemma created by the automobile? Many of the answers to this question can be found in Wolfgang Zuckerman's book, End of the Road, the World Car Crisis and How to Solve it. Everyone is encourage read this well constructed and insightful book. Mr. Zuckerman gives 33 solutions to the Car crisis all of which I feel impelled to list here. This illustrates the point that if the problems that are the converse of these solutions would have been conceived before the automotive industry was constructed, many of the dire consequences mentioned above could have been avoided.

  1. Radical redesign of the conventional car.
  2. Helping car owners become aware of the true cost of their vehicles.
  3. Place restrictions or total interdiction on car advertising.
  4. Carefully design total, partial or temporary car bans in city centers
  5. Traffic calming and street modification to give non-car users a greater share of the street space.
  6. Using cells and mazes to protect local areas from through traffic
  7. The creation of mixed-use pedestrian zones.
  8. Using parking policy as an instrument to restrict car use in cities.
  9. Formulate a policy to prevent infractions effectively.
  10. Stricter regulation and higher taxation on trucks.
  11. Make cities, suburbs and country side more walker friendly.
  12. Making bicycles use more appealing by creating a bicycle-friendly infrastructure.
  13. Close damaged roads to motor vehicles and turn them over to non-motorized transport.
  14. Integrate taxis into transport planing.
  15. Semi-public service to provide a real alternative to the private car use.
  16. Using pools and high occupancy vehicles for commutes to work where walking, cycle, or public transport is not practical.
  17. Allow hitchhiking to take its rightful place in an overall transport strategy.
  18. Restore local rail for efficient freight and passenger movement and as a car restraint measure.
  19. The use of trams and light rail systems to replace private cars in cities.
  20. Separate bus ways in cities to stimulate public transport.
  21. The use of citywide fare cards to boost public transit.
  22. The use of easily administered road pricing to control the number of cars on the road.
  23. Higher fuel taxes to discourage car use.
  24. Informing the public about government subsides of automobiles to create political pressure for their removal.
  25. Rethink the concept of suburbs to make sterile bedroom communities into living towns.
  26. Planing new towns as integrated and car independent communities.
  27. Bring back corner, village and open air markets to stimulate suburban walking and prevent long car trips to distant superstores.
  28. The use of telecommuting to cut down the number of cars on the road.
  29. Arranging our lives to be less car dependent.
  30. Stop giving bad advice and dirty cars to third world countries.
  31. Conscious raising, role modeling, and education about the worldwide effects of the car.
  32. Stricter attention to energy efficiency on the part of drivers.
  33. Careful consideration for the necessity of each car trip

          It would have been wonderful if of all of these ideas had been worked out before automobile technology was implemented. All future technology should be examine and scrutinized; all possible continuances must be provided for before new technologies are implemented. Florida International University is breaking new ground with their Hemispheric Center for Environmental Technology. Upon looking over their projects and objectives outlined on their internet site it was found that most of their research was focused on clean up technologies. It is felt that more attention should be given to source reduction. Projects should be centered on envisioning, analyzing, and planning for future technologies.

     During the six years I worked as an environmental activist for Greenpeace. I held the position of Mass Transportation Liaison. As a grass roots lobbyist, I talked to numerous people throughout South Florida about improving our Public Transportation System. I organized a protest demonstration at a Broward County Commission meeting fighting for a more efficient bus system in Broward County. In Broward County all busses stop running at 9PM. The major theme of our protest was to extend the hours of service to 12 midnight. Restricted service of this type disables workers on the second and third shifts, creating dependence on the automobile. Green Wind is committed to do every thing in its power to increase funding to, and improve local Mass Transportation Systems.

     The benefits of technology are very obvious. Comfort, convenience, abundance in production, and instant world wide communication are but a few of technology's many advantages. Copying machines, faxes, and digital computers make publications like this possible. The microchip gives us a way to store as many records and as much data on one small disk, that in the past would have filled many filing cabinets with huge bulks of timber exploiting paper. Computers and modems connect us to the World Wide Web, information and international communications at out finger tips. In my opinion, computer technology is benign, where as automotive technology is malignant. A technology that puts forth good fruit is benign; a technology that puts for bad fruit is malignant. Human folly brings forth faulty technologies which bring promise of leisure and convenience but whose hidden impact ravages our society. We must strive never again to use malignant technologies either out of ignorance or through pressure applied by special interest. There must be a screening process installed in our government to classify any new technology and eliminate those that are malignant. Technology is a powerful force like fire. Fire out of control can kill and destroy; but if controlled can give us warmth and cook our food. Fire is technology in its most primitive form. As we have seen with the case of the automobile, more complex technologies can also kill and destroy. In the future all technologies must be analyzed, screened and contained.

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