Consumer first

The sale of SUVs in US has gone down like anything. Do US citizens suddenly become conscious of emissions, green and clean technology, carbon footprints? No, what happened is, the rise of petrol prices coupled with economic downturn and partial consciousness of the citizens significantly affected the sale of SUVs. So what was the result? A greener world? No again. The auto companies started to exploit their SUVs products in the developing markets which were not as much hit by economy as US and the green consciousness is practically nil. So what happened is the transfer of the emitting sources from one location to other.

Many researchers are suggesting companies to make products which will be clean and green. I do not agree with that. As long as there is a market for a product, the product will be manufactured. Reva, the electric car is not much popular even if it solves the problem of emissions. It does not have the market yet. So what can be done? First, if the auto companies are seriously thinking about the environment then before spending millions and billions of dollars on the technological aspect of the products they should focus on the conscience of the consumers. They have to make their buyers realize what can be the negatives of these heavy smoke emitters and then consumers will automatically buy the clean-green products, if possible in premium also.