One of the most influential inventions of capitalism – the car - epitomises the possessive individualism that is capitalism’s main social characteristic. Individual car ownership did not exist for the large majority of UK citizens until recently: in 1950 there were four million cars on the road, now there are 32 million. Greenhouse gas emissions need to fall to net zero by 2050 but in 2020 have risen by 10% since 2015; cars contribute 14% to this rise. Air pollution caused by the motor car kills, directly or indirectly, many thousands a year in the UK. The first death officially recognised as being directly caused by air pollution in the UK was Ella, a nine-year old girl who died in South London in 2020. Her death stimulated a campaign for an ‘Ella’s law’ to curb air pollution. About 1700 are also killed in road accidents every year in the UK.
The volume of cars and lorries on the road at present is not sustainable. They and the infrastructure to support them have already destroyed much that was great about our cities, towns and villages as well as concreted over vast swathes of the countryside. The UK government in 2020 committed £27 billion to build even more roads, a figure that dwarfs the amount devoted to environmental enhancement. Prof Greg Marsden, of the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds has said there should be a moratorium on new road construction pending the take-up of electric vehicles: “The focus on shovel-ready infrastructure expansion on the roads will, regrettably, simply dig us a bigger climate hole to get out of.”
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