Congested cities are fast becoming test tubes for scientists studying the impact of traffic fumes on the brain.
As roadways choke on traffic, researchers suspect that the tailpipe exhaust from cars and trucks—especially tiny carbon particles already implicated in heart disease, cancer and respiratory ailments—may also injure brain cells and synapses key to learning and memory."
Cap tip Dave
'via Blog this'
This intelligence is hardly novel. One can by observation note the effects of our choices. It would be interesting to see a study of residents of Capri and other largely car free spots compared with the residents of NYC and LA. The elimination of the car from its close contact with ambulatory human beings is the task of this century. Even if cars were good for you in terms of their emissions, they would be bad. They kill community and reify human beings. With over-built sprawl houses they are becoming too expensive and increasingly undesirable. Detroit should be making surfaces, walls, solar roofs, energy producing walkways - the mass-produced elements of the cyber-communities of the present and future. We could supply the world. We make mini things and ignore the big picture. Here is a view from above of walkable cyber-communities of 5-10K inhabitants free of cars, linked by new mass transit and zoned to contain all elements of city existence wherever they are located.
Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes
