Ahmed_Waqar_RN1

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School

University of Illinois, Chicago *

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Course

130

Subject

Geography

Date

Oct 30, 2023

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pdf

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Uploaded by LieutenantMantisMaster676

Ahmed 1 Waqar Ahmed Professor Kocs US 130 2/12/2023 US 130 RN 1 Did you know 27% of U.S greenhouse gas emissions are contributed from causes of transportation(United States Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2022)? This makes transportation the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. To grow upon this staggering fact transportation also had the most growth in greenhouse gas emissions between any other sector from 1990 to 2020 (EPA, 2022). Climate change has many negative effects on our planet ranging from global temperatures rising worldwide, sea level rising to the point where many small island nations are at risk of complete submersion, and the amount of carbon dioxide has risen by 25% since 1958, and since the industrial revolution carbon dioxide has risen by a staggering 40% (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA], 2021). These are just a few of the negative impacts of climate change and illustrates how important it is to mitigate further damage being caused to our planet. As stated above

Ahmed 2 transportation is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions which is the primary catalyst of climate change. In California alone transportation is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions. See Figure 1 for the full distribution of greenhouse gas emissions by each economic sector in California. Specifically in transportation gasoline powered vehicles are the main source of emissions and it is necessary to find an alternative. Gasoline weighs 6 pounds per gallon. The carbon, which is consumed in our cars, removes an additional 14 pounds of oxygen from the atmosphere and produces 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change (Coltura, 2020). Not only are our gasoline vehicles taking out oxygen from our atmosphere but they are adding even more carbon dioxide back to the atmosphere than what they intake! There are so many harms that crude oil and gasoline causes to our environment no matter what stage it is at in its lifetime whether it be from the beginning stage of oil extraction and exploration, to the middle stage of transporting this gasoline, and all the way to the final stage of it being stored in gas stations and burned in our cars. The whole process of gasoline consumption has so many negative implications on our environment that we may not see. There are also many dangers of extracting oil from the ground such as during 2010 when there was an explosion at a rig in Deepwater Horizon that released almost 5 million barrels of crude oil, created a kill zone of 80 miles and killed 11 men (Coltura 2020). Not only this but the aftermath to this explosion was also detrimental because the US coast guard had to conduct a burn in the area of the explosion to help prevent more spread of this oil but this in turn released even more harmful gasses into the air. When this oil is extracted from the ground it also contains methane which cannot be used with gasoline so oil companies have to burn this methane off which produces even more black carbon. This process is done in the Arctic. Another byproduct

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