Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
to achieve some form of optimised consensus, rather a mechanism for vocal minorities to act in their
own self interest. The participation process hence needs very careful definition (Abram, 2000; Bruton,
1980).
The nature of 'car dependence' is broad - covering reliance in trips (there is no other form of transport
available), car reliant activities (carrying heavy goods or undertaking multi-destination trips), car reliant
locations (remote), car reliant persons (limited mobility), car convenient journeys (alternatives modes are
available, but perceived as less attractive), car dependent persons (a statement of status or self esteem),
car addiction (those who talk 'incessantly' about cars and whose life revolves around the need to drive),
a car reliant society (high observed levels of car use, where people without cars are excluded from essential
activities) (Lucas and Jones, 2009).
Greenwashing (green whitewash) is a term for the disingenuous 'spinning' of policies and products as
environmentally friendly. Reputedly coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986, greenwash was
used to describe the hotel industry's practice of promoting the reuse of guest towels, ostensibly to 'save
the environment'. In most cases, little or no effort was being made towards energy efficiency, waste
recycling or other environmental practices, and the distances travelled to the hotel were often extensive,
and perhaps by air. Westerveld viewed these 'green' efforts as being motivated by profit rather than for
the environment. Examples can be seen in many other fields.
Voltaire's
Candide
(1759) begins with a young man, Candide, living a sheltered life, indoctrinated with
optimism by his mentor, Pangloss. Over time Candide becomes disillusioned at the pain experienced in
the world. He maintains that 'We must cultivate our garden', moving beyond the naivety of Pangloss
that 'all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds' (Voltaire, 1759).
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Lewis Carroll provides us with a very similar story (in
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded
): a map so detailed
that it covers the very things it was designed to represent - the hyperreal: 'a map of the country, on the
scale of a mile to the mile'. Baudrillard, Urry and others develop these themes to describe the concept
of hyperreality: a hypothetical inability of consciousness to distinguish 'reality' from 'fantasy'. The logical
extension into the transport world is perhaps in the use of the car and car dependency: the hyperreality
of motorisation - in the utility, convenience and freedom it supposedly offers - but often fails to deliver,
and certainly only with significant external costs to the environment and society.
