Concern on Global Warming ---- from a country which remains one of the handful country not to ratify the Kyoto protocol and which releases more greenhouse gases than any other nation
********************* http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-nano18jan18,1,6189414.story?coll=la-news-comment Tiny Tata Nano, big threat template_bas template_bas The $2,500 Nano will put millions more Indians on the road. Is there a silver lining in that pollution cloud? January 18, 2008 There's a good reason why chief U.N. climate scientist Rajendra Pachauri, who shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, says he's "having nightmares" about India's newest automotive innovation. It's not because the Nano from Tata Motors, which was introduced last week, makes the boxiest hatchbacks from the '70s look sexy. It's not because the car lacks air conditioning in a country where the heat can be paralyzing, nor because its 2-cylinder engine can barely manage 60 mph. It's because the vehicle's tiny price tag -- about $2,500 -- will make car ownership possible for millions of Indians, which could well render the rest of the world's efforts to combat global warming moot. Currently, only about 12 in 1,000 Indians have a car, according to the United Nations. In the United States, the ratio is 765 cars for every 1,000 people. What happens if, through a combination of its incredibly rapid economic growth and innovations like the Nano, India's car-ownership ratio hits that of the U.S.? That would put 864 million cars on India's roads, more than 3 1/2 times the number in the U.S. It wouldn't happen for several decades, if ever, but the same phenomenon is occurring in China, which has an even bigger population. The International Energy Agency estimates that the number of cars in China will increase sevenfold, to 270 million, by 2030.That's a scary prospect. Light-duty vehicles account for about 10% of global carbon emissions, and that number is going to rise quickly as more Indians and Chinese get behind the wheel. Indians, of course, have every right to enjoy the newfound freedom and status that comes with owning a car. There is nothing the world's environmental community can or should do to interfere with the rollout of the Nano. Yet it does point up the urgency of developing technological alternatives to the internal combustion engine and the burning of fossil fuels. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ _______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
