- Question
- Can we live without oil?
- Position1 of 2›
- Yes, we can live without oil
- Argument1 of 3›
Exercise inducing transportation is healthier than using oil powered transportation
Different modes of transportation such as walking and bicycling are a great way of exercising. If society made these modes of transportation the main way of getting to and from, everyone would be healthier.
The argument
The argument concerns what oil is actually indispensable for, and takes transport as the test case because that is where oil dependence is most visible. Cars occupy a central place in modern life. In 2016, there were an estimated 1.4 billion cars being driven worldwide, a figure that reflects how thoroughly the vehicle has been built into daily routine: how far people live from where they work, how settlements are laid out, and how errands are expected to be run. Ubiquity, however, is not the same as necessity. A thing can be universal because it was convenient and because infrastructure was built around it, rather than because nothing else would serve. Civilization can survive without cars, which is to say that the needs cars currently meet are needs that have other means of being met. Those means already exist and require no development. Walking and bike riding move people from one place to another using no oil at all, and they do so with equipment that is either free or inexpensive and available now. They are also healthy alternatives to using oil-fuelled cars rather than merely adequate ones: the journey itself supplies physical activity that the driven version of the same trip does not, so the substitution improves the health of the person making it as well as removing the fuel. That is what makes the replacement attractive rather than merely tolerable. The alternative to the largest single use of oil is not a sacrifice but something better for the people who adopt it. Because exercise-inducing transportation can take the place of oil-powered transportation, proponents conclude, we can live without oil.
Premises
Counter-arguments
Replacing cars entirely is a bad idea. In India, the country is having an issue getting an ambulance to people in trouble due to their bad roads. Without ambulances entirely, there would be a crisis of people not getting to the hospital fast enough.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P3] Replacing cars with walking and bicycle riding will harm society.