IS IT TIME FOR FAMILIES TO DOWNSIZE?

When it comes to the different ways by which carbon is emitted into the atmosphere, one that keeps growing by the day is the carbon emissions from vehicles because we keep having increased percentage of people buying cars daily. One interesting and sad part of all of these is that, in some countries like mine, we have seen scenarios when people that are well to do no longer move alone. They move with more than 2 escorts and this is either to flaunt their wealth in the name of them needing security guards or because they actually need security guards.

These people do these things ignorantly sometimes but then, most times they know that these things have alarming effect on our atmosphere. Aside the fact that they move with fleet of cars, there are some citizens that have more than one car that they could end up not using some of them in a year. Although, there are a few exceptions as some people buy fleets of cars as a form of investment which is even one of the reasons why they don’t use them all the time. But besides such reasons and for emergency reasons, I don’t think there is any other good reason for having more than one car. I mean, we won’t even be talking about this if you don’t have the money to buy them.

Also, there are some families I know of, because they have more than one car, they no longer see the need to go to places together as one can easily use the other car when they are ready. And because of these reasons and more, most people buy cars that are just for the names and not really for the main purpose of moving them from one place to another without inconveniencing themselves too much. Now, people buy cars because they think they are the only ones in the neighborhood that doesn’t have a car or because they have the money to do so or some other reasons.

The truth is, having a car is a good thing and I don’t see anything bad if everyone decides to get his or her own car. My major concern is, when these cars are no longer road friendly will you be honest about it and get it off the road? Mostly, the answer is no and for me, that is the problem. Most cars that are in good shape hardly give off carbon emissions which is totally fine, but then, it starts becoming a problem when these cars starts having poor management and things are no longer the way they should be. The users most times will always want to keep managing it instead of using another form of transportation or getting a new one if they can.

Here in Nigeria, most vehicles that are used for public transportation are no longer road friendly but then, we still see people use these vehicles and it keeps growing by the day because the laws that are supposed to protect us from this mishaps can easily be bypassed. Ideally, a vehicle that is emitting excess carbon shouldn’t be on the road, also vehicles that are noisy. These kind of vehicles are what we should look out for rather than dictating the number of cars each family should have. Naturally, humans are wise enough to know what is good and it’s expected that they do so.

But when they fail to do what is right especially in something like this, I believe one thing that can help is making laws and sticking to them so as to ensure that those who use vehicles that are not road friendly will be punished for it and I believe that will put it in the minds of others to do the right thing and that will in turn save our atmosphere from excess carbon emissions. People should also know the health risks associated with using so many vehicles especially those vehicles that are no longer in good condition.

Giving a rule that every family should own one car will be helpful but then, at this point, it is will be so hard for this law to be applied because some families are really large and they all go to different places at different time. Making such a law will only make most people deliberately fall guilty and that is not what we want. The best thing I believe we should do to help, is eliminating those vehicles that are causing the problems every now and then. And if families can have only one car, it would be nice but if they can’t, it’s also fine.

Like I said, the major problem is not really the so many cars because this can be fixed to a considerable extent if those vehicles that are not road friendly are removed. The problem is knowing when your vehicle is no longer road friendly and taking it out. If we can do this, then it will be even more helpful than controlling the number of cars every family should have.

Thanks for reading through. ❤️