Why Humanities 160 Is Burying The Car
Argument
The Automobile represents a grave danger to the survival of mankind. We recognize
that the hydrogen bomb and tanks of poison gas also represent grave dangers to mankind
and if we had the power to perform the symbolic death of all of the hydrogen bombs we
would bury a hydrogen bomb. We recognize that B-52 bombers represent a danger to human
suvival and if we could perform the symbolic death of all war machines we would bury a
B-52 bomber. We would be happy to ring the death knell on bombs, tanks and napalm but
we do not have the power to do this. We have chosen the symbolic death of the auto
because it is the most lethal instrument over which we, as weak, powerless human beings,
have control.
We have already declared that we have not undertaken this car burial lightly. We
recognize that it is central to the American psyche, the American culture, and the Ameri-can
economy. We also recognize that the auto represents the most wasteful element in
our society.
By this^act we wish to shatter the auto as a symbol of power and beauty in American
life. By this act we hope to remove this k i l l e r from its central position in the Ameri-can
culture. By this act we hope to alter the course of the American economy and turn
it^to the production of socially useful goods. We also recognize that this is an act
which perfectly symbolizes waste. But these are just the reasons we are burying the car.
One absolutely new auto which is completely wasted represents 1/7,000,000 of the annual
waste represented by the automobile for there are 7,000,000 autos junked every year.
We are burying the auto as a symbolic act which w i l l signal the beginning of a
nationwide boycott on the purchase of new autos. By this boycott we do not call for a
depression in Detroit but rather for the redirection of Detroits1 resources. By the
burial of the auto, we call for Detroit to transform itself from the center of the auto
industry to the center of the transportation industry. We demand that, in the next ten
years, Detroit recycle 83,000,000 autos into a public transportation system which w i l l
send 200,000,000 Americans on their appointed rounds quietly, swiftly, economically and
wi thout pollution.
If the burial of this one auto can do some small bit to bring these changes it w i l l
have helped all men, black, brown, white, and yellow to survive.
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Why Humanities 160 Is Burying The Car
Facts
The United States has 83 m i l l i o n cars.
Every year Americans junk seven m i l l i o n cars, 100 m i l l i o n tires.
In 70 years of life, the average American uses 21,000 gallons of gasoline.
Autos are the Generators of the Destruction of Our Land, Our Cities, Our Culture,
Our Air.
Each year the United States alone paves over 1,000,000 acres of oxygen-producing trees.
1,000,000 acres of land is used annually for Auto Parking.
Autos dump 250,000 tons of Lead in the Oceans Each Year.
Air containing 80 parts per m i l l i o n of CO, over an 8 hr. period, renders 15% of the body's
hemoglobin temporarily useless (equivalent of losing a pint of blood.) In a traffic jam,
carbon monoxide levels often reach 370 parts per million.
Autos Produce 85% of Urban Air Pollution.
In Los Angeles, 30% of air pollution is caused by automobiles. Autos spew 12,000
tons of waste into the air each day in Los Angeles.
Detroit's new smog devices although, cutting down on carbon monoxide, are throwing
out twice as much nitrogen oxide which reacts with waste hydro-carbons to form the most
toxic element in smog.
We now have 50% more nitrogen oxides in California, and at the present rate it's only
a matter of time before light w i l l be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our
land w i l l be usable.
Freeways cost 31 m i l l i o n dollars a mile.
Autos waste 50% of America's Natural Resources Each Year.
Autos Are Produced To Be Obsolete in 5 Years.
In 1969, over 1^3 m i l l i o n tons of pollutants were released into the atmosphere in the
United States.
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