The Tata Nano was unveiled a couple of days ago in India, marketed as the cheapest car out there and targeted to the growing number of Indians who would like to have their own car but cannot afford to have one.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/11/2136595.htm
In class we have been talking about this. Is it fair to deny this opportunity to developing countries just because they have greater populations and have the capacity to do greater harm to the environment or should this car be hailed as a great product, providing supply to a huge demand in India?
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interesting post! we often say that for progress to occur, sacrifices must be made.and in either scenario, whether to forfeit the opportunity or to allow further harm to environment, there seems to be no middle point to satisfy both sides.
ReplyDeleteenvironmentally friendly AND cheap products would mean higher cost(since more technology and sophisticated products), and that is would defeat the whole purpose of producing such affordable cars for a less affluent country like India.
This is an example of how the cruel concepts of economics comes true. Cost will always be a factor that people consider before taking any action. At such a low price, it is impossible to stop a boom in the number of cars in India.
ReplyDeleteThough it is not fair to deny India this revolutionary chance to develop economically as the car is exported and will definitely be highly demanded, the environmental impacts of a global boom in fuel usage and CO2 emission is un-imagineable. However, like what the article mentioned, which i really agreed to... was that to come up with an environmentally friendly car will always be more expensive...
This brings us to the idea that environmental sustainability is a concept existing in richer developed countries, where there are simply just more 'money and time'to develop these technologies. It is difficult to get people from developing countries to CARE for the environment, where there are greater priorities such as their three meals, or housing problems before them.
On the whole, this is a great example of how sustainability is an extremely faraway concept, that is difficult to get everyone to be involved in, and to get different fields (economic developement, environmental development), to work towards similar goals when their aims are often contradicting.
Thanks for Sharing.>!
Hey once again on behalf of the Singapore team, i apologise for these late replies ya .. Recent weeks have been tortuous and quite hectic for us. I seek for your understanding ya haha ... ^_^
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