How Roads Can Cause Economic and Social Meltdown
In our ALERT blog last week, we presented a new two-minute video we created entitled “Why Roads Are So Dangerous”.
It shows how new roads can be treacherous—even fatal—for wildlife, native forests, and the global environment.
When it comes to nature, the best analogy for roads, we believe, is cancer—a contagious and spreading malignancy.
PANDORA’S BOX
Here we present another two-minute video we’ve made entitled “Why Roads are Like Pandora's Box”.
This video shows how new roads can have surprisingly harmful effects on human economies and societies.
Many people advocate for roads, believing they will bring wealth, jobs, and myriad other benefits.
But few appreciate the full story. Roads are neither entirely good nor bad: they are a double-edged sword.
It’s important to see both sides of the blade.
VIDEOS IN OTHER LANGUAGES
These videos need to reach a diversity of people—especially those in developing nations where road expansion is occurring most rapidly. So we have produced our first video in eight different languages:
English: Why roads are so dangerous
French: Pourquoi les routes sont-elles si dangereuses?
Spanish: Por qué las carreteras son tan peligrosas
Portuguese: Porque razão as estradas são tão perigosas
Bahasa Indonesia: Mengapa jalanan sangat berbahaya
Bahasa Malaysia: Bahaya dan kesan negatif jalan raya
Papua New Guinea Pidgin: Bilong wonem na rot i nogut
Mandarin (Chinese): 为什么公路那么危险
PLEASE SHARE!
Please share these videos freely—and ask others to circulate them as well.
We need to get word out urgently. Roads change everything—economies, societies, politics, nature.
With careful design and planning, we can ensure new roads have greater benefits for people and cause far less harm to nature.
Our warm thanks to Laurie Hedges for help with video production, and to Jaime Huther for organizing the language translations.