Cars have contributed greatly to improving the quality of life of societies across the world. Ever since the first “horseless carriages” began hitting the streets in the late 1800s, the peoples’ way of life has never been the same. Automobiles have vastly expanded our horizons and limits, literally and figuratively. It has revolutionized the way we do everything on this planet. Countless lives have been saved and changed for the better.
On the other hand, cars have also brought us to the darker side of life in the modern world. Here, we’ll touch on the 5 worst effects cars have had on our lives. Buckle up, readers. It’s going to be a really scary ride.
1. Those insidious emissions
When the fossil fuels ignited for the very first time inside the engine of that very first car, the proverbial Pandora’s Box of emissions was opened into our atmosphere. Now, nearly a century and a half later, those fossil fuel emissions from billions of internal combustion engines are contributing greatly to a greenhouse effect that threatens to result in irreversible global climate change.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle), a typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, assuming that this vehicle travels around 18,000 kms every year and has a fuel mileage of around 11 kms per liter.
According to Australia-based carsguide.com (https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-advice/how-many-cars-are-there-in-the-world-70629), as of 2016, there were around 1.32 billion cars, trucks and buses operating around the world. If you do the rough math, you’ll be shocked to discover just how much CO2 emissions all our world’s land transportation systems are dumping into the atmosphere. And this doesn’t even yet account for the emissions contributed by our maritime and air transport systems!
All in all, the transport sector contributes approximately one quarter (25%) of all energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/energy/what-we-do/transport). Further, it revealed that the sector has become one of the largest sources of both urban and regional air pollution, with recent studies estimating outdoor air pollution causing over 3.2 million premature deaths each year worldwide.
Photo credit: Arthur Ogleznev
2. Crushing carbon footprints
A typical car’s environmental impact doesn’t begin and end at the tailpipes. The entire vehicle—whether it runs or not—is in itself a “monstrosity” of sorts in Mother Nature’s eyes. According to National Geographic (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/environmental-impact), “vehicle production leaves a giant footprint because materials like steel, rubber, glass, plastics, paints, and many more must be created before a new ride is ready to roll.” Many of these materials, despite being recyclable, can remain in the environment (such as plastics and toxic battery acids).
The site also mentioned that another associated impact of cars has been the “building of roads to support them, as well as the urban sprawl that tends to follow in their wake.” Though this effect is difficult to put in numbers, we surely can see the obvious effects on our natural environment. With more cars, there need to be more roads. With more roads, more land needs to be used. Expanded land use ultimately encroaches on natural animal habitats and affects fragile ecosystems.
Photo credit: Luis Quintero
3. Dr Frankenstein of a car made of animal parts
In case you’ve been hiding under a rock all your life, you should be aware that the leather wrapped around the seats and steering wheels and gear shifters of your car most likely came from the skins of millions upon millions of slaughtered cows. Talk about “Silence of the Lambs”-level horror every time you take a seat in your car.
According to panaprium.com (https://www.panaprium.com/blogs/i/animals-killed-leather), as it quoted the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “In 2018, the number of cows, calves, buffaloes, goats, and pigs killed for their hide and skin to make leather increased to more than 2.29 billion worldwide.” That’s a massacre of epic proportions that horror movie villains can only dream of achieving. The most frightening thing about it is that the slaughter of animals happens in real life.
Not only that, the long-chain fatty acid commonly called stearic acid, found mostly in animal fats, is used to make lubricants and tires. According to BBC.com (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-38205600), even something as seemingly unlikely as steel is coated with lubricants made from animal products.
Photo credit: Adi Perets
4. Murder we rode
In modern societies, especially for those living in the cities, no one has been left untouched by tragedy caused by road mishaps. Everyone has experienced any of these unfortunate events, or know of a friend or loved one who has experienced these—being run over or bumped by a car, getting injured or dying in a car crash, or becoming a victim of car-related crimes.
According to the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/road-traffic-injuries), every year up to 1.3 million people die as a result of a road traffic crash, and between 20 and 50 million more suffer non-fatal injuries, with many incurring a disability as a result of their injury.
Those horrible figures represent the human casualties, the numbers of which are mere drops in a violent ocean of blood that soaks the world’s roads. If one also accounts for the number of animal lives cars cut short on an annual basis around the world, the figures are truly staggering. According to Scientific American (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/roadkill-literally-drives-some-species-to-extinction/), quoting 2020 data gathered by the University of Aveiro in Portugal, on Europe’s roads, 194 million birds and 29 million mammals die annually. Similar calculations suggest that, each year, more than 350 million vertebrate animals are killed by traffic in the United States. Another study, this time by the Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, estimates that “228 trillion insects are killed each year on the world’s 36 million km of roads.”
It’s not surprising, then, for the article to make this dire prediction: “(Some species) are likely to be literally driven to extinction by road traffic in the next few decades.”
Photo credit: Hamoviç A
5. Revenge of the road rage
No doubt, automobiles have brought about a world of convenience and relative safety for billions of motorists worldwide. But being soaked in the creature comforts of a car also carries the danger of being detached—mentally and emotionally—from the realities on the ground, and more tellingly, from the larger community. This detachment, the lack of opportunities to connect with others on the road and thus, not feel empathy for their own struggles, add fuel to the raging fire of aggressive driving. And road rage is the runaway “forest fire” of all bad driving behaviors.
Octotelematics.com, citing AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), reveals that road rage episodes have resulted in about 30 deaths and 1,800 injuries per year in the United States alone (https://www.octotelematics.com/blog/road-rage-statistics-2022/). Although no statistics are available online for road rage incidents in other parts of the world, we can imagine that, more or less, the same factors contributing to extremely aggressive driving in the United States are also at play on the world’s roads.
The transport industries have made significant strides in making cars safer and more environment friendly. The rising popularity of vehicles powered solely by electricity or other non-fossil fuel-based sources of energy provides a glimmer of hope that someday, hopefully sooner rather than later, the majority of cars on the world’s roads would not anymore emit greenhouse gases. Majority of car parts are already recyclable. The development and application of passive and active safety technologies in cars are saving more and more human lives (perhaps, even other animals). Tangible progress made in the manufacturing, accessibility, and quality of faux leather (or synthetic leather made from materials other than animal skins) is making more carmakers and buyers opt for cars made with cruelty-free interiors. Autonomous or self-driving cars, albeit still limited in availability, are gaining ground in large, developed markets. There is a foreseeable future when much of the driving would literally be out of human hands, thanks to revolutionary steps in automotive technologies and artificial intelligence.
In the end, “exorcising” the “evil spirits” possessing our cars will entail not just the purest of intentions, but the best of our collective minds and consciences, as well.
Photo credit: Erik Mclean