The gas powered car was the worst invention ever.

My opponent used two reasons to try to prove gas powered cars are THE worst invention ever.1 Loss of life due to accidents.2 Destruction by pollution. First point from the Canada Free Press article my opponent cited: Cars are apparently not the primary villain in automobile deaths. It's the drivers, and conditions. "How to fix the problem? New York City in one example. The City has worked very hard to improve road safety by a combination of engineering innovations, stronger enforcement, and public information campaigns. For instance, by engineering traffic signals and expanding medians, theyâ€™ve given people more time to cross wide streets safely. Theyâ€™ve expanded bike lanes and seen a rise in safety for everyone on those roads. Since 2004, there have been fewer traffic fatalities each year on New York streets at any time since the year 1910, which was the first year these kinds of statistics began to be kept. "So as far as traffic fatalities, there is no direct link between the actual invention of gasoline powered automobiles and death. Millions of people travel safely by car every day. And the gasoline powerplant certainly has even less to do with why people die in car crashes. Unless my opponent can show that they are less safe than any other type of powered car. Second point: Gas powered automobiles do cause a great deal of air pollution. However, this does not make them the worst invention ever. They serve useful purposes that have nothing to do with pollution that outweigh the drawbacks. Gas powered cars allow many millions of people to go to and from work, school, stores, recreation, and hospitals. The availability of an inexpensive mass produced Ford Model T shrank the world for Americans, and much of the rest of the world. Gas powered cars are a vital key in evacuating people before natural disasters. Now, really, all I need to do is show that there is an invention that kills more people than gas powered cars, and serves less useful purpose. Recreational Tobacco is less useful than a gas powered car. You can't use it to get to work, escape a flood, or go to the hospital. At least as a mode of transportation, more like a reason. I guess you could use it as a fuse for a McGuiver style bomb. But it's only real purpose IS to create pollution. Pollution that isn't filtered through catalytic converters or monitored by O2 sensors for cleaning before it's dumped out of the way. This pollution is meant to be inhaled directly by humans, and occasionally monkeys.1.3 million people die a year from car accidents, but according the World Health Organization, more than 5 million people die from recreational tobacco use. . http://www.who.int...As far as carbon emmissions contributing to global warming: First off, even though I don't buy into man-made global warming, I will not be totally dismissive of my opponent's fears of it. Consider this: The gas powered automobile has only been around about 120 years or so. Widespread tobacco use has been around since the discovery of the Americas by Columbus. 500 years. It's been putting out carbon dioxide way longer. It's addictive. Cars, not so much. If an alternative to gasoline powered cars catches on and there aren't hardly any left in the future, chances are high that tobacco will still be around, and popular. Considering the amount of carbon released by burning most of the 7 million tons (+/-) of tobacco produced every year, the heavy deforestation in underdeveloped countries that grow it, tobacco may well be a lingering and addictive contributor to green house gasses far more difficult to eliminate than gas cars. Lots of people can't afford cars in this world, but they can scrape together a few bucks for a bag of tobacco and roll up strips of old newspaper. . http://www.tobaccoatlas.org...Tobacco is used almost exclusively for recreation, through pollution directly into the human body, and is highly addictive. Gas powered cars are useful for transportation, which is vital for human life. Gas powered cars are not the worst invention ever. Even if there is something worse than tobacco, I have demonstrated it isn't gas powered cars.