People's Car Will Foul The World's Climate

A $2,500 car is great for the Indian middle class, not the atmosphere Add the People's Car to the Model T, the Mini and the Beetle. Like its predecessors, the People's Car could be the populist key needed for India's rising middle class to hit the roads. Sounds great for a developing country, and the historical echoes to the invention of the American road have to please the Henry Ford in all of us. Problem is, 1.1 billion people with their own cars -- cars made so cheaply they don't employ effective pollution controls -- is not a good thing for the world's climate, let alone the air quality for the suddenly mobile Indian middle class. Right now, one in about 125 Indians owns a car, whereas as many as one of every two or three owns a car in some Western nations. The per capita increases in carbon dioxide emissions that will continue to come from rapidly developing nations like India and China are one reason President Bush has refused world agreements on greenhouse gas emissions unless big developing nations join industrialized nations in the effort. The potential impact of the People's Car gives Bush's stance some credibility. For more on the People's Car, read this Reuters story.