Bicycles are one of the greatest inventions of human culture and they have never been exclued from human lives since its advent. Recently bicycles are in the center of the environmental movement because they do not produce any environmental pollutants and also are good for health. I think that this recent focus on bicycles is one example to show how much automobiles changed our lives. Since the advent of automobiles in earth 20 century, it has changed our lives in both the bad and good ways.
To begin with, many scientists believe that automobiles emit significant amount of pollutants, which finally destroyed the environment and caused global warming. They revealed that the concentration of carbon dioxide rised up as the number of cars increased and this is related to the increased temperature of the Earth. These ramifications which cars finally induced are affecting our lives all over the world. For example, the gases emitted from cars caused air pollution and it became difficult to see stars in cities. Also, desert area of the world is expanding and more and more people are suffering from the lack of water.
Moreover, automobiles became symbols of wealth. At the very early time when automobiles first appeared, only rich people can own cars. Even though cars are one of the must-have items in the modren society, it still reflects the social positions and the finantial state of the owners. This expands the emotional gap between the rich and the normal, which interrupts the social consolidation. This is the reason why people attack nice cars whenever social violence appears.
Automobiles have been attributed to the development of cities. The development of cities entails physical expansion of the area. This implies that workers should commute longer distance from their homes and their works. Without automobiles, it is impossible for so many people to commute to workplaces. Besides, automobiles take an important part in transporting goods from one city to another. Without trading, the cities cannot develop.
Another good change automobiles induced is that people can have more chances to travel and they can travel far. The distance which people can travel was very limited before the advent of cars. Travel by cars showed new world people had never experienced and this broaden the horizons of people. Also, people started to enjoy their spare time, for examples, on beaches or in mountaines, because they could go everywhere they want to go.
To sum up with, automobiles have pros and cons and these characteristics changed our lives in different ways. In other words, they produced environmental pollutions and expanded the emotional gap between people. At the same time, because of cars, people can travel far and more often and the development of the cities could be expedited. |