----- forwarded message ----- Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 12:03:41 +0200 From: info <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Earth Day prelude: a world without cars ----- forwarded message ----- Subject: [gaia-l] Earth Day prelude: a world without cars Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 21:55:52 -0400 From: "Mark Graffis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thursday, March 29, 2001 By John Roach Get ready. Stop your engines. Go! On April 19, the Thursday before Earth Day 2001 (April 22), all citizens of the world are invited to spend a day without their cars in what is being billed as the first Earth Car-Free Day. The idea behind Car-Free Day is to encourage people to think about the problem of motor vehicles and traffic in cities as they try to get around in a "car-lite" environment, according to The Commons, the Paris-based co-organizers of the event. While The Commons and Seattle-based Earth Day Network are leading the Earth Car-Free Day effort, the event has no official sponsor, uses no tax dollars and is 100 percent volunteer-based. The grass-roots approach is intended to empower citizens to take the battle against global warming into their own hands. Carbon dioxide, the most prevalent of the greenhouse gases that cause the Earth to warm, is spewed primarily from more than 700 million cars that travel the world's roadways. The world's governments have failed to reach an agreement on how best to meet the goals of the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty to combat global warming. The grass-roots Car-Free Day is intended to empower citizens to take the battle against global warming into their own hands. Here, solar-powered cars pass through Washington, D.C., on a 1,425-mile race promoting solar power. "Earth Car-Free Day 2001 is being organized in hundreds of cities and neighborhoods around the world. And you know what? There is not a single international conference, treaty negotiation or law enforcement agency in sight," writes Eric Britton, president of The Commons, in an Earth Car-Free Day announcement. Given the grass-roots nature of the organization, the events are diverse. In Singapore, the Singapore Environmental Council has organized a car-free day in which citizens of the city are asked to leave their cars at home, in the hope that the concept will catch on and encourage people to switch from cars to alternative modes of transportation in the future. The Ecology Action Center in Halifax, Canada, has organized a car-free event in that city with the support of health organizations and city government. Some groups, however, view the grass-roots movement to get people out of their cars as an action against individual freedom. The Georgia Highway Contractors Association began airing ads in Atlanta this month that chide environmentalists for telling Americans how to live their lives. Copyright 2001, Environmental News Network
