Imagine, poor people with cars!

The Indian Tata group has unveiled the Nano, an aptly named new car that will sell for just R17 500 (100 000 rupees, or $2 550), not counting taxes and import duties. MyBroadband carries the AFP story — presumably because the Indian Tata conglomerate is heavily invested in South Africa, including in its telecoms sector — and has a picture, reproduced here:

Horrid, innit? But hey, it’s transport. And cheap transport at that. For the price, you’d be hard-pressed to find a 10-year-old wreck in South Africa.

One would think that such a bold competitive move, bringing prices down and promising to improve the quality of life, employment opportunities and business prospects of millions of people who previously couldn’t afford the luxury of a motor vehicle, would be hailed as tremendous news. You’d think it would be held up as a symbol that free enterprise can yield success not only in the rich west, but also in the emerging markets of the south and east.

No. Rajendra Pachauri, chairperson of the IPCC, which jointly won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, is “having nightmares” about the prospect of a low-cost car for the masses. Despite the fact that the car has a tiny engine, meets emissions standards and has a claimed fuel-efficiency number well ahead of even the smug hybrids of the rich, he is among the critics who reckon it can only contribute to noise and air pollution, and therefore it’s a bad thing. Better to keep cars expensive, so only the rich get to pollute the planet.

There, with one simple phrase, Pachauri betrays the nightmarish aim of the environmentalists. The sanctimonious elite seek to bar progress, and their anti-prosperity goals are aimed not only at the extravagant rich, but also at the ambitious poor, who are still climbing the ladder of rising prosperity and quality of life purchased by rising production and economic development. Can’t have the natives driving cars, now can we?

What people like Pachauri fail to realise is that prosperous people have the means and motive to do something about pollution and environmental quality. By keeping the poor pinned underfoot, all the self-proclaimed “socially conscious” set do is ensure that the poor will have higher priorities than being nice to the planet for the sake of the rich. All they will do is make sure the poor won’t have the means to protect themselves against the natural changes and disasters that are an inevitable part of living on this active planet of ours.

If the madder branches of the Cult of Gaia resemble suicide sects, the remainder appears to be into human sacrifice.