Smoked out

The City of Light is fast becoming the City of SmogA kind of toxic fog caused by high levels of air pollution..¹

SUVsSports Utility Vehicles. A type of car that sits high off the ground and can drive off-road. are taking over Paris. Officials say the number has spiked by 60% in the last four years.² Local politician Frederic Badina-Serpette calls this trend "autobesity".

SUVs are environmentally damaging. The annual CO2 emissionsWhen a gas is let off from something, like a car, it is an emission. Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. from the world's SUVs are bigger than those of the UK and Germany combined. Paris authorities will try to bring SUV numbers down with higher parking fees.

The news from Paris is part of a changing attitude towards cars. Every day millions of people take cars without much thought. We drive them to school, to work, to the shops, to the train station, even for the fun of driving itself.

But many now think we have made a terrible mistake. Cars are monstrous polluters, emitting seven billion tonnes of CO2 each year, damaging both our health and the environment. Over 1.35 million people a year die in car accidents.

As a result, city governments have tried to reduce car use. Some aim to become 15-minute cities, where all key services and needs are within a quarter-hour walk.

London has the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). Drivers must pay each day they use a vehicle.³ Mayor of London Sadiq Khan argues it is important to clean the air and stop people "breathing in poison".⁴ 

Campaigners hope that driving is the new smoking. Cigarettes were once seen as normal. In 1965, 42.4% of adult Americans smoked. But as doctors learnt about their dangers, people turned away. By 2018 only 13.7% smoked. It will one day become extinct. Could cars be the same?

But not everyone wants to reduce car use. ULEZ has been attacked by drivers due to the impact it will have on their livelihoods. Many lower-paid manual jobs rely on motor vehicles more than higher-paid ones. To hurt poorer people over wealthier ones seems unfair.

Yes: Society changes fast. Smoking was once fashionable, but now many countries force smokers to stand outside. Gas-guzzling, smog-shovelling cars could soon be replaced by something greener.

No: Cars are not the new tobacco. They are even worse. They define how our cities are built, how we move in the world and the type of work we do. Kicking the vehicle habit will be much, much harder.

Or... The current crop of gas-emitting cars has to go. But electric vehicles, which produce far fewer emissions than their cousin, might offer a way forward for those who want to keep driving.