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

Sima Wali: It’s highly unlikely. All Chinese people cannot afford a car and imagine what it will do to the environment. The destruction of the environment it would cause would be of monumental degree. So, I think this question is based on the fact that this is going to be highly unlikely for the, for all Chinese to afford and to have a car.

by Sima Wali

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

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Tamas St. Auby: Then they will join the majority. When they will have it, they will depart as quickly as the majority.

by Tamas St. Auby

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Tania Bruguera: I don't know, maybe we can deplace them to the other side of the world(?)....I don't know. It is interessting because the chineses have a tradition to use a bike... .... It is interessting how they built certain cities that are not...- But I don't know what would happen if all Chinese people want a car. I cannot imagine the diseaster..in every level. But I also would have the right... I think that for the chinese cities ther would be some consequences. This consequences have to be valorised of every point of view.(?)

by Tania Bruguera

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Tavis Smiley:

by Tavis Smiley

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Tegla Loroupe: Answertext will be available soon.

by Tegla Loroupe

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Thenmozhi Soundararajan:

by Thenmozhi Soundararajan

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Timothy Speed: For sure, we know the problem. If every Chinese drove a car, we would be facing an ecological disaster. If I ask myself how to solve this problem, the answer is that it can only be evaded if we, the Western states in Europe and America, stop being an ecological threat ourselves. I don’t think that we can expect people in China to do without the progress, which we praised for such a long time, if we don’t solve our own problems. I think we have to return to our own values. As long as we aren’t able to answer theses questions for our own country or to develop alternatives for our own country, [we can’t reach the Chinese]. In these countires progress has just begun, they start to enjoy progress. Progress has positive sides as well. The individual progress, which happens in China, is not only negative, like progress in our country wasn’t only negative. It has many positive sides, which allow new forms of freedom to enter the country. I think that for the highly complicated problems, which we are facing today, the only possibility for advancement is to start to develop ourselves. We have to start to look for solutions for these complex problems. How we can handle a situation when society and development reach equal technologies.

by Timothy Speed

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Tu Weiming: That could turn out to be absolutely disastrous. China for long time was a nation of bicycles, Beijing for example. Ever since the reforms and open policy of the 1970’s especially in the 1990’s, China became a major importing economy concerning expensive cars. In the city of Beijing, with a population of 30 million, privately owned cars are now numbered at 3 million or so, and it is increasing at alarming rate. This is also true with Shanghai and other major cities. Unfortunately, this is the government’s policy to enhance China's GDP or economic development. And of course, this is also very much the policy of the major car makers in making China the lucrative market for consumption of automobiles. And increasingly, China has become a major producer of automobiles, a major corporation such as Toyota were open, perhaps one of the most comprehensive and expensive factories for China to produce automobiles for exporting. And this process is a very dangerous process. Right now, the traffic jam in some of the major cities like Beijing has already shown public transportation including rail roads and other forms of communication is absolutely necessary; without that not only China, but the rest of the world be really suffer.

by Tu Weiming

Sep 9, 2006 2:20:00 PM cite

Udi Aloni: What if all Chinese people will decide to jump in the same minute on earth?

by Udi Aloni