JANUARY 18 — Ban the kapcai on city roads to reduce carbon emissions?
Excuse me, but who is that speaking?
Seriously, if we use of brains instead of our hearts, our souls instead of our mouths, we will without doubt realise that the root cause of carbon emissions is development.
Development is never ecologically friendly nor sustainable. The phrases “sustainable development” and “green building” are, deep down to the root, nothing more than branding. Development is all about the money trail, and very often about greed.
Concrete jungles, especially compact and under ventilated developments, generate much more green house gasses than motor vehicles. In fact, it is these unnecessary developments that draw vehicles, be they kapchais or otherwise, to the cities. Beyond the screen saver, developments are a major importer of GHG from the countries of migrant communities.
Development commands very heavy demands on natural resources, most of which are finite and non-regenerative. These demands are not only limited to the chopping down of natural forests or confined to the construction stage — maintenance is a major consumer of finite resources and emitter of GHG.
Besides GHG pollution, development is probably the single biggest contributor towards air particulate and water way pollution.
So if we really want to reduce carbon emissions, should we slash our over development and bury our greed first? Should we embrace Gross Happiness Index and Gross Healthiness Index instead of Gross Domestic Product?
To quote, Guangzhou and Beijing have banned motorcycles since 2007 to reduce crime and accidents, apparently not because of carbon emission. And Hanoi's proposal to ban these two wheelers is because these machines are the over whelming majority on their roads plus they have a much improved public transportation system which is affordable to the masses.
In China and some other countries which do not favour fossil-fuel powered two wheelers, there is an alternative in the form of electric scooters which is adequately supported. But, just but, how many countries have a decent END OF BATTERY LIFE management process in place? How many countries are honestly open about their non-carbon damage to mother nature?
To eliminate kapcais because criminals and rempits use them? Hey, why not think about chopping off their limbs so that they won't be able to commit such social misfeasance? Surely that would be a much more definite solution and deterrent to address crime?
PS: This rant is not about me supporting kapcais. I am just asking politicians to open their souls to the greater cause of environmental degradation.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
