Cars, cars, going, going, gone?

It is quite interesting to watch the various discussions on political programmes like ‘Daily Politics’. Mostly the questions are a bit arcane so to say, but today was an exception. Justine Greening in the hot-seat being hauled over the barricades. One of the issues was the declining investment to the car industry. By up to half? In other words halved. Well, it beggars belief that politicians do not seem to grasp one of the problems with cars – exhaust fumes and plastic! Does anyone ever discuss the amount of material going into the production of cars? We constantly hear about overcrowding, traffic chaos, poisoning of the city air up and down the country. These things are all related. I think it might be a blunt statement - if we are serious about cleaning up our air, less dependence on plastics and be more responsible how we husband the earth’s resources then car production should not only be halved but changed to benefit public transport. Not just a few more trains and buses but a bold approach to maglev trains. These could easily be built on overhead railways as per the Chinese model. We simply cannot and must not rely on personal cars, it is not sustainable. And frankly with soon to be 8 billion people crowding this planet, there are more important things to consider, health and living space.