In the United States, the two largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions are transportation and electricity. Although limiting the emissions from electricity will be important in the future, transportation would be much easier to fix now. Greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon dioxide, water vapor and nitrous oxide not only pollute the air we breathe, but they also store energy that could be causing climate change. These molecules trap heat from leaving our atmosphere which is believed to cause the earths increase in heat. Most Americans see climate change to be an issue that should be acted on, and since greenhouse gases could be causing climate change the emissions of these gases need to be limited. Recent studies show that transportation produces nearly 27% of greenhouse gases in the United States (Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 2017). In addition, the leading producer within the transportation category is light duty vehicles. Many people say that airplanes and ships are to blame for the majority of greenhouse gas production in transportation, but the majority of the pollution actually comes from the cars Americans drive every day (Fast Facts on Transportation Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 2015). The United States government needs to take charge and make changes that will help limit the production of greenhouse gases. To fix these issues, the government could limit the cars that citizens are allowed to own or change existing tax laws to benefit drivers of fuel
Three quarters of emissions in 2004 were coming from road traffic (Woodcock, p.1930, 2009). Emissions used from transportation are forecasted to increase from the year 2007-2030 by about 80% according to studies done by James Woodcock who is currently studying climate change and health from car fuels (Woodcock, p.1930, 2009). This is due to the fact that the emissions from vehicles are increasing significantly and are higher than any other energy fragment (Woodcock, p.1930, 2009). The only way to lower this percentage is to decrease the number of individual automobiles on the road and increase the number of public transit systems, starting long distance walking to work or school, carpooling or even biking to destinations. These principles would
Currently the human race is coming to terms with one of the most monumental problems of its own creation : air and water pollution. The poisoning of the very air we breathe and the water that we drink has become too prolific to ignore any longer. One culprit ? Automobiles. The more smoke we expel from the exhaust pipe, the more we exhaust our environment and poison the air and water that allows us to exist. But what can we do to reduce the amount of pollution we produce ? It’s not like we can just stop driving ,right ? Wouldn’t it have an adverse effect on our productivity or make it harder to get to work ? It’s not like it would make a difference anyway, right ? Well not necessarily, currently there are entire countries banning automobiles
The U.S government has been actively involved in overseeing emission standards for years. This corresponds with the statement made by the U.S Department of transportation that, “Transportation is the largest end-use sector emitting CO2”, and also the statement released by the NRCAN in which, “Fuel usage & carbon dioxide emissions have grown steadily over the past two decades.” These factors are only to be associated with your average four door sedan and/or light truck. These do not include your 18 wheelers, heavy trucks, or the gas guzzling vans that emit more carbon dioxide into the air and are also on the road more today than ever have been before. Cars are readily and easily obtainable more so now than ever have been. This creates more fuel to be burned up in which produces more toxins to be constantly released into the atmosphere. In fact, according to Scientific American “cars relate as much as 30 gallons of GHG, while only driving 3 miles.” These miles can be correlated with something just as simple as your average work commute. According to the United States Census Bureau, “Nearly 600,000 full-time workers had "megacommutes" of at least 90 minutes and 50 miles.” Those workers alone would each be releasing up to 500 gallons of GHG. These can be considered some of the bigger factors that the greenhouse gasses have taken a toll on.
It has little to no effect to the environment when one car is on the road, but what if there are three billion other cars on the road? With the amount of carbon dioxide discharged into the air, diseases are forming, natural resources are diminishing, ice caps are melting. Who is held responsible for this? Who is responsible for the carbon dioxide debt that we owe the planet? Essentially, the government is held responsible for this clutter. Because of the lack of regulation and promotion from the government, citizens are mindlessly wasting water, littering trash, and overexploiting nature for its valuable resources. Therefore, the government must be held responsible for fostering green practices.
Another problem is transportation; cars, planes, trucks, and other vehicles emit various greenhouse gases when in use, or when idling. I would create more solar-powered cars, and if possible, wind-cars, or other cars that run using renewable sources. I would also increase the prices of gas, to discourage people from buying it. However, this would be very, very expensive, and the fuel companies would not agree with the
The second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States is related to transportation, the burning of oil to produce energy in a combustion motor. The combustion process inside of engines is what produces the carbon matter that is emitted into the air through the exhaust system on gas-powered vehicles. Gas-powered transportation is accountable for 24 percent of the global carbon emissions; this should not come as much of a surprise given the amount of urban sprawl that is being seen in the United States and across the globe. In the past decade, the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States government, and major car manufacturers have been working in conjunction to find ways to provide a “greener” form of transportation (EPA, 2011). This has included testing the use of hydropower, ethanol, natural gas, biodiesel, and electricity as a means of powering vehicles, which has led to the introduction of hybrid vehicles. Hybrid vehicles run on electricity and gasoline, the byproduct of oil that is generally used in the engine combustion process of vehicles (U.S. Department of
First, cars pollute the environment. In 2012 the EPA reported that a whopping 28% of emissions came from transportation. As it says in the article “Running off the Road”, by Grover Kingsley, “With their largely petroleum based fuel, cars constantly spew carbon monoxide into the air.” We are responsible for the
In order to examine and combat global warming, Senator Bernie Sanders and Barbara Boxer introduced the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 on Jan 15th, 2007. The act was proposed to increase performance abilities for electricity generation and motor vehicles with the choice in emissions “cap and trade” system. Unfortunately, the bill failed to pass committee in 2013. (Environmental Defense Fund, 2007)
As western society has been aggressively expanding, the consumption of materials has followed suit. This leads to a negative effect on the environment. To curb the decay of the planet, it is important for humans to have a handle on how much we consume. One consequence of consumption is the emissions produced by our vehicles. It is crucial to develop a government policy that most effectively controls and reduces the amount of these emissions we give off. While the government has introduced many subsidization policies, the most efficient policy the government could enact is to raise the taxes on gas.
Cars and truck account for 20% of all U.S. global warming emissions, where more than 24 pounds per gallon of carbon dioxide and other global warming gases come right out of the car’s tailpipe (“Union of Concerned scientists”). This frightening statistic is part of the reason why the federal government has put in place many policies and incentives such as the Clean Air Act, The National Program for greenhouse gas emissions, Catalytic Converter Federal Laws, and incentives of $12,000 in California to get people to upgrade to more fuel-efficient cars. With such programs and incentives put in places, it is also important that car companies such as Toyota and Ford also take action to further cut pollution rates. They have done so by
Climate change and transportation play a big role and it is important to be concerned for our future generations. The use of gasoline cars is a major producer in carbon dioxide emissions, although they are not entirely responsible for it—they play a role in it. Other form of transportations like buses and taxis also contribute to carbon dioxide emissions. The total amount of carbon dioxide emissions from an average car is seventy six percent which comes from usage of a vehicle containing gasoline. Efficiency has increased by twenty percent in regards to electric motors, especially when it comes to their wheels using no power when the car is at rest. Car ownership will increase and with this, improvements in technology could be a vital
Global warming has escalated at the fastest rate in recorded history. We Americans don’t realize how much CO2 is produced every year. The burning of fossil fuels to make electricity is the largest provenance heat-trapping pollution. The United States comes in second of producing large amounts of CO2. Many climate changes have occurred due to the burning of fossil fuels. We need to reduce the burning of fossil fuels and start utilizing clean energy. Us Americans need to stop utilizing gas-operated cars instead we should use battery operated cars which is better for the
Transportation is the number one thing we consumers do that harms the environment. Transportation causes the highest amount of environmental damage overall - nearly half of the toxic air pollution and more than a quarter of the greenhouse gases traceable to household consumption. Over time, however, sales of trucks, vans and SUV's went from 16% market share to over 50%. One big auto manufacturer even shelved their work of the last three years, spent updating their most popular selling economy car, so they could spend the money getting SUVs to market faster.
With new information regarding the harmful effects of greenhouse gasses on the earth’s atmosphere, upwards of ten countries have put in place some form of tax on their carbon emissions since the turn of the century. Prior to 2000, there were very few countries that already had some form of carbon tax in place.⁴ One of those countries was Norway. Norway was one of the most progressive countries in environmental regulations, first imposing a tax on greenhouse gas emissions in 1991.⁴ The Norwegian government felt the most effective way to lower their carbon emissions would be to place a high tax on the oil and gas industry in an attempt to force the companies to find greener ways of extracting the oil.⁵ They believed that by doing this, it would cause the overall price of oil to rise for domestic consumers and therefore cut the amount of oil consumed by a drastic margin. While the tax has done some good, such as making the Norwegian oil industry one of the greenest in the world, it has not been nearly as effective as they would have hoped.
Automobiles are a major producer of greenhouse gas. One gallon of fuel burned puts five pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Let’s say that an average car gets 25 miles to the gallon, and that car has a ten gallon tank. Every time a car gets filled up with gas, another fifty pounds of carbon dioxide have been put back into the atmosphere, and that is just one car. The automobile industry is very important to the world economy, so I am not saying that we should stop making cars, but there are other solutions. The recent trend of hybrid electric cars that get up to fifty miles to the gallon are becoming more popular. Also public transportation is very important. City dwellers that live downtown, do not need to drive their cars to work. Every major city has a form of public transportation that can get anyone around the city, and for that gallon of gas a bus burns the same five pounds reaches the atmosphere, but instead of one