Those few with medical roles aside, pets have no discernible value. You don’t need them to get to work or to heat your food, they don’t pay the bills and they’re not going to cure hay fever. They just make their owners feel a bit better. That’s it. That’s all they do. Basically, they’re destructive yet pretty much pointless.
It’s hard to find any estimate of just how destructive, but one study put the environmental impact of a large dog at 2500kg of CO2 or equivalent per year . If true, that makes them at least as harmful but way less useful than the car that you absolutely need so you can go to work, the shop, the hospital or to care for other people. Yet it’s the car that cops all the flak and not the pet.
Go on, look at a puppy’s world-class floppy ears and big paws. Have a little squeeze of a cat’s toe beans and a stroke of its impossibly soft fur while it purrs. Melt at the way they look up at you with those big adoring eyes that say “yes, you’re my entire world”, or at least “Prior, I believe my next meal is due”.
Meanwhile, there’s a good chance that a sports car will make an angry, spiteful noise and have a snarling, growling and nasty front end – very much its face. Is it any wonder that people don’t like those as they pass loudly by when there’s an adorable golden cavapoo in the vicinity? Maybe the industry could learn a thing. Some Japanese cars, notably, used to have sweet faces, and I don’t find that people get irate over pretty classic cars. Perhaps if modern cars appeared less aggressive, shouted less and were cuter, they would get an easier ride. Cars: be more dog.
matty_prior I can't believe anyone still reads articles about cars that aren't about EVs. Irrelevance anyone?
matty_prior Posting real turd these days.
matty_prior What's the environmental impact of a lazy motoring journalist who's run out of things to say?
matty_prior Prefer big chunky blocky cars - Nissan Skyline R34 and current gen Volvo V60/V90 are decent examples, although the Alfa Guilia GTA misses the mark.. Softer faces are harder to get right - looking at you 1998 Ford Fiesta.
matty_prior Good