Eric Draper takes stock of the auto s impact on the global environment. Vegetation is stripped away, destroying habitats so that animals flee or are crushed beneath earth movers. The topsoil is pushed aside and the land s contours are smoothed. Streams and pools are filled, diked or ditched. If bridges are needed, pilings are sunk into rivers.
Sediment chokes the water, killing fish and disrupting other aquatic life.
Modern roads require not only the area upon which the roadbed is laid, but also shoulders, graded rights of way and ditches and culverts to drain run-off water. Asphalt is made from the toxic tar that remains from coal and oil processing. To that is added aggregate which often comes from incinerators and power plants - and is laden with dangerous heavy metals like cadmium and mercury. These materials slowly leach their contents into the land and the water. To maintain roads and to clear weeds from ditches, crews often spray the weeds with carcinogenic herbicides, the same basic chemical made popular as Agent Orange in Vietnam.