Auto Mania: Cars, Consumers, and the Environment

Science News,  Nov 24, 2007  

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AUTO MANIA: Cars, Consumers, and the Environment TOM MCCARTHY

As crude oil approaches $100 per barrel, wallet pain, more than any fears of global warming, may eventually lead Americans to reconsider their thirst for ever-heavier and ever-faster cars and trucks. Since Henry Ford's invention of the mass-produced car, consumers have chosen what to drive based less on the environmental consequences--which include not just tailpipe emissions but the full product cycle, from mining to disposal--than on the allure of the car as a status symbol, McCarthy argues. He tells the story of a nation's affair with four wheels and of how the car's role as cultural icon has influenced its evolution. When considering the car's impact on the environment, it is simplistic to blame it all on Detroit's "big three" or the inadequacy of government regulations. One case in point, McCarthy writes, is the astonishing rise of the SUV, which took even car manufacturers by surprise. Yale Univ., 2007, 368 p., b&w illus, and photos, hardcover, $32.50.

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