How many have seen British Petroleum’s stupid new commercials designed to show how environmentally correct the company has become? Allegedly, BP now stands for “beyond petroleum” although I don’t think they’ve gotten too far beyond it since gasoline still seems to flow from their pumps when I place the nozzle in my car’s tank.
Anyway, I digress. How many have seen the commercial where the women is asked “what would you rather have, your car or a clean environment?” Instead of turning to the camera and saying “this is about the most ignorant question I’ve ever heard,” the woman responds by saying that to ask someone to give up their car is like asking them to give up chocolate. What a way to trivialize the use of one’s car. The fact is that asking someone to give up their car is asking them to not go to work, not to take their kids to soccer games, not to go to the grocery store, not to go to the theater or a movie, not to go to church….
Asking people to give up their car is asking them to revert to a 19th century lifestyle, with or without chocolate. As an aside, this was a time when the environment was much more polluted than it is today.