Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Rachid ElDaif: Today every Chinese person wants a car and that is his right. That is why worldwide the countries have to rethink this matter. It's getting urgent. And this is why you shouldn't follow the example of the western civilization, if I daresay, of the western states. It is not an example that should be followed in every detail. This question has definitely something to do with the problem. We have to develop transport systems, well I don't know what we have to do but we have to think in another way about this question. The communication systems, energy and I don't know what. But if it goes on like this every Chinese person has the right to want a car. That's not the right way to ask the question.

by Rachid ElDaif

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Raymond Federman: And why not? And why should they not own a car? But they must be responsible as we hope, but indeed no one is of the use of the car. We must find a way, a way to transport each other, to move about in our city, in our country by using machines, called them cars, which do not pollute the planet. And there are many other ways, many alternatives to that. Yes, of course the best one is electricity. Electricity can be produced cheaply and effectively all over the world, using whatever method: using the wind, using water, using even atomic energy, if necessary, using the power of the sun. Electricity, one of the greatest inventions of mankind, finally can be used to activate the cars. But of course there is opposition, opposition from the car manufacturer and from the oil company. Yes, so the oil company will lose money, will go broke. No, they should use, they should do research right now, all of them together to produce another mode of thing and it’s true that there could be a world crisis if suddenly the oil production were to elevate into, if those who are in control of oil, decided to create a crisis in the world. It’s inevitable. We must immediately, as soon as possible, find alternative ways of moving our cars, and not only with gasoline, not only. But I think electricity is the safest and the surest way; and there are already companies in the world, especially the Japanese were working on this, but the Americans are far from doing it and that is their problem.

by Raymond Federman

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Robbie Conal: I think I will just take a wild guess and think that all Chinese people do want to a car, and I am from LA, I think everybody -- what they do with all those bicycles anyway, maybe turn bicycles into cars, arms into ploughshares kind of thing, bad into worse. What kind of car, how about the bio-diesel car, how about a vegetable oil car? I know we have a lot of vegetable oil in China. I mean it's more like what if all Chinese people get a car, what kind of car, what do they do with it, where are they going to go? I have a good friend who has this suspicion that transportation is immoral, and I thought that was funny until I thought about it for more than a couple of minutes and there is an issue to be thought of about our uses of transportation, maybe our uses are immoral, or amoral, maybe transportation is amoral. What do use transportation for? Going and getting stuff, going and selling stuff, hunting and gathering like the cowboys use their horses. Yes, and maybe it's more what we do with the cars than the cars themselves, what kind of cars than the fact that everybody can get around is what are you going to do when you get around?

by Robbie Conal

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Rodrigo Baggio: This sounds like a joke, but a very interesting one. If each Chinese or each inhabitant of a super populous country wanted to have the same level of consumation as the others, we would be causing a situation in which this kind of question would be unsustainable. The point is: we have to redefine our values; we have to redefine what we want for ourselves. And by making this process, we could change this consuming mentality that exists in our societies. We need to take care about those questions to effectively measure and balance our economy and our personal questions in a viable and equal level of having this sustainability in a global way.

by Rodrigo Baggio

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Roland Berger: The question can be answered like all questions in this direction. If all Chinese want to have a car, considering the present car technology with the conventional combustion engine and supposing an ambition to use the biggest, the fastest and the most powerful car, the sky above us will become dark. That means, we have immediately to switch onto a new mode of drive and renewable energy. The technology in this field is already in the process of development, for instance, hybrid motors, electric motors, the fuel cell and hydrogen motors. They couldn't be applied immediately, but till the time all Chinese have cars, they will be applicable. I think it’s primarily the responsibility of the nations, which have the biggest car industry. These are the US, the EU and Japan. Although the Japanese are a little bit ahead in this field, I think, Europe has a chance to catch them up and America will follow. So, no need to be pessimistic, it’s just a reason to switch.

by Roland Berger

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Sabiha El-Zayat-Erbakan: Yes, that's the big threat which is often talked about. The purpose of that is very clear. It's that if all humans on this planet would have the same wishes, consumption of resources and would cause the resulting emissions like 20% of humans already do by consuming 80% of the resources then the ecological disaster must be expected and that it will come is clear. Unfortunately the common reaction to this is to think about how it can be avoided that even more people participate in the same consumption and the behavior that harms the ecological system instead of thinking about how we can change this imbalance that 20% of the humans consume 80% of the resources and cause almost 80% of emissions and environmental damage. Instead we also think about how we can refuse the Chinese this way of life that we have created. So the question is what we can do with this imbalance and we will have no other possibility than reducing our expectations.

by Sabiha El-Zayat-Erbakan

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Sanar Yurdatapan: Well, there are few dimensions in that question. The first dimension, of course, the white men should tell them their limits. There’s a second class people. How could they want it? The second dimension, if they do and if they have, they will see what it costs and then their whole life should be spent in queues just waiting to go one meter away. But, the third and serious thing it's also something sad that people are still slaves of the automotive industry. What use of traveling from one place to the other in a small thing called car, one or two people in each, spending a lot of energy? But, for example in my country, on the 10th anniversary of the republic in 1933, there was a march that even today people sing it proudly and they said, “We have put an iron net all around the country.” That means the train railways around, but then after 50, it was left and the following governments kept on growing the roads for cars, trucks, etc. And, the result is terrible. Now, people can be transported in common vehicles in the cities and out of cities. And, it is not necessary to put everybody in a car, so that the oil companies will have more and more and, of course, [inaudible].

by Sanar Yurdatapan

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Santiago Roncagliolo: If they wanted a car, I suppose we ought to sell them one. This would be a huge source of work for very many people, and it would be difficult to stop them, and no one would really be interested in doing this. What is more, if they wanted them, and let us pretend that we did not have these cars because of ecological reasons, we would have to explain this to the Chinese because it is a problem if they want them but not if all Americans and all Europeans want them. But I am afraid if all the Chinese had a car, they probably would not fit into the country at all.

by Santiago Roncagliolo

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Shaobin Yang: What if all Chinese people want a car? Then we have to turn all German people into automobile workers to produce cars for the Chinese and finally all Germans are tired out. It is an impossible story. If this is the case, the situation would be quite different, because China is actually a big agricultural country and it doesn’t have such strong purchase power to buy luxury cars. Once I had an idea in China, namely, setting a starting price of 400,000 to sell cars so as to make cheap cars not competitive any more and in the end out of the market. This way it could restrain some people’s desire for automobile consumption.

by Shaobin Yang

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Sihem Bensedrine: Why don't we ask the Europeans the same question? Why don't we ask why every Italian wants to have his own Fiat? Why don't we ask why every German wants to have his own Volkswagen? Why don't we ask why every Scandinavian wants his own car? Why do we only ask the Chinese this question? There are still these mechanisms to go over the top with your own anguish and to consider the demand of others as less legitimate than your own demand. So I think we have to ask the question in another way: How can we make the car industry reduce its worldwide production, and encourage the bicycle industry to raise its production? How can we strive for an extension of public transports and for a limitation of private means of conveyance? And this should be a guideline for everybody, not only for the Chinese people. This question would then deserve being posed and would deserve answers everybody can benefit from.

by Sihem Bensedrine

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Simon Retallack: If everyone on the planet has a car that uses petrol gasoline as its sources of energy, there is absolutely no doubt -- the scientists of the world are convinced that we will destroy the planet with climate change, global warming. Already, we’re on a trajectory where we’re sending dangerous climate change happening in certain parts of the world with islands being flooded, with extreme weather events taking place, with heat waves destroying crops and lives around the world; and the situation will only get worse if we continue to be dependent for our modes of energy production on fossil fuels: coal, oil and gas. Now, it’s not up to us to say to the Chinese that they can’t own a car. I think there’s an obligation on those of us that contribute to the problem here in the developed world to lead by example. If we want people in other countries to use energy in a different way, we have to show how to do it first. We have to show that it’s possible to use energy much more efficiently and to generate it from renewable sources. And if we can do that, if we can show that it’s possible to move around the world in ways that have a much smaller carbon footprint, I think, we stand a much better chance of persuading the Chinese, the Indians, other countries to do so too, not least because we will have brought down the cost of the technologies necessary. It’s possible today to build cars that use energy much more efficiently. The hybrid Prius car that Toyota makes, for example, uses much less energy. In the future we are going to see cars that use hydrogen, but already there are alternatives; bio fuels can be used in cars that don’t pollute nearly as much. And I think those are the sorts of technologies that governments need to support so that the deployment of them is rapidly and urgently escalated and the Chinese and everyone else urged to adopt those clean energy technologies.

by Simon Retallack

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Sohrab Mahdavi: Shouldn’t they? Shouldn't they?

by Sohrab Mahdavi

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Song Kosal: Not enough roads, many accidents. Not enough car parking space, too much pollution, and the cost of the petrols will be high if all Chinese people want a car.

by Song Kosal

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Steve Earle: Then we're fucked. And the scary thing is that more than likely--why wouldn't they want a car. In the so-called-West we had our turn; we all got a car. Or most people got a car. Certainly in the United States almost everyone--everyone that society cared about got a car anyway. So it's a real concern. It doesn't mean that they don't have a right to, but it just means that we've reached critical mass in the number of cars that our environment can support. Period. And the only thing that China has to do with it is, China's developing so rapidly that it has suddenly become possible for everyone in China to have a car. Unless they take a different path than we did and decide to take better care of the world when they are running things than we have then they will indeed have a car and it will be detrimental to us--to everybody--and to themselves.

by Steve Earle

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Sulak Sivaraksa: The Chinese have the right. Each of them can have a car if they want to. But, of course, that may bring catastrophe ecologically much sooner. If we don’t want all the Chinese -- each of them to have a car, then we should change ourselves. People in the First World should decide to have less and less car, look for alternative energy, use more bicycle. And even the car itself should use less petrol, should use more sustainable energy. Then I think it is possible for everyone to have a car, that car, if the car is not run by consuming too much energy. That it is right now. Besides, that car should not be for prestige, should not be to help the car industry. The car should be really to serve people for transportation; and yet, transportation by car now cause so much pollution, cause so much traffic jams. I think we should go beyond car industry. We should go beyond car culture. In this sense, perhaps the Chinese with their wisdom may not want to have a car each.

by Sulak Sivaraksa

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Susan George: My neighbor is Chinese. I am glad he is going to answer this for himself, but my answer would be there is no “if” in that sentence; they all do want a car. They all think they have a perfect right to a car because they see all Americans as having cars, and probably all Europeans having them, although that’s not quite true. And, so the question is not what if they do, but what do we do since they all want a car? They, the Chinese, in a sense, do all have a right to a car. We have done it, so why not others? So, what do you do in that situation? Do you say, “no, you don’t have a right to a car. We will keep on driving, but you can’t.” That doesn’t seem to me to be fair. So the only other answer is to adapt what the German eco-philosopher, Erik Von Weizsacker has called Factor 10. He has shown with his colleagues at the Warburton Institute that you could cut down energy and material use by a factor of 10. You could simply divide it by 10. The technologies to do that are there; and even the automotive technologies, the materials you could use in a car, could be made much, much lighter, although they would not be less safe or weaker, that you could use fuel consumption mechanisms that would be much more economical, and this is the only way to go. So, that means quite huge investments in these alternative technologies because for the moment, although they exist, they are expensive. And so, if we want to use them that means we have got to invest in them so that they can be mass produced and so on. Otherwise, we are saying no to a perfectly normal aspiration.

by Susan George

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Swami Pragyapad: This question is really amazing. You know, already all Chinese people might be wanting to have a car. But the real trouble is when all Chinese people have a car. When they have a car, there will be real problems on this planet. And I think it is up to the Chinese government to decide what solutions they can come out with. You know, how they can take care of the requirements of the people and yet be able to balance the ecological, environmental consequences of so many people owning a car. But really, if all Chinese people want a car, and have a car, it will be really-- it may be disastrous to our planet. We need to think about it. And we need to see whether it is sustainable or not. So many people having a car in the long run will not be sustainable for this planet. And before this happens we might have to have a re-look at the way we live, at our requirements. And we have to differentiate between real requirements and luxuries. We need to really see whether so many people really need to have a car. Otherwise, we are going to create disaster on this planet.

by Swami Pragyapad

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Sydney Possuelo: It would be a terrible chaos. Perhaps the earth does not support it. Perhaps only if they would change the parameters. We were talking about global warming some minutes ago. Now we are talking about what happened if each Chinese would have a car, that would mean one billion cars more in the world. Plus India there would be 2 billion people driving a car. I think this would we unsupportable if we think about the actual cars that are moved by petroleum. This would be terrible. But it is a right of the Chinese. But the question is about what would happen. It would be a chaos and something extremely difficult to resolve. There would be a lot of any sorts of complications. It is difficult.

by Sydney Possuelo