Smart Drivers or Poor Drivers?

Fewer cars, smaller cars and slower drivers are probably the cause of a decrease in driving fatalities this year. Of course this would also mean we have less emissions from vehicles and a slow down in the amount of goods bought means less emissions from those goods being shipped all across kingdom come and lo and behold the horrible economy is a good thing for the environment! Now how do we make these two things meet up? How can we let people keep their homes and jobs and not expand carbon emissions and overall environmental degradation? This of course is a question people have been asking for a long time and I have no answer for it.

Capitalism lends itself to cash over consequences at every turn. The idea that "green" technologies can even these things out is probably our best chance, but I see so much greenwashing that it is hard for me to believe that capitalism won't skew the balance so far to the cash side that the consequences will continue to be dramatic and devastating.