Nairobi’s Vehicle Pollution and the Lack of Public Transportation
Kenya, like many other developing countries in Africa, is experiencing a rapid growth of urbanization. Many cities and towns have grown in population size and have also expanded spatially to form huge metropolitan regions. The rapid urbanization also generates a lot of economic and environmental problems and challenges. Nairobi is one such metropolitan region that follows this trend in Kenya. With the demand for cars in Kenya rising every day, so is the level of air pollution. Vehicles contribute to this evil at a very high level. But there are ways of helping reduce the amount of pollution caused by car emissions. The gases expelled from petrol engine cars contain carbon
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The Park is located within the city of Nairobi, which is the only city in the world to have a large assemblage of wildlife in its metropolis. The park is a major rhino sanctuary and supports the second largest animal migration after the Masaai Mara. The benefits of the park include recreation, environmental education, employment and income generation. The park is also an important carbon sink for Nairobi. However, too much carbon can harm the vegetation. In recent years, the parks’ surrounding land area has been sold to private landowners (Gakuo 29). Changing land use and subdivision of land are diminishing animal biodiversity and reducing wildlife migratory corridors. Human-wildlife conflicts have thus arisen while air pollution and poor waste management from human activity are compounding the situation (Gakuo 29). The city’s poor air quality is migrating to the wildlife’s environment without any habitat consideration. By developing conservation education programs for communities and collaborative institutions, citizens will be able to recognize their environmental influences when using motor vehicles. To resist further damaging effects, collectively, the city of Nairobi needs to take serious action and find a way to limit the amount of vehicles constantly using the roads.
If groups of people
With a declining or no use of cars can result in the reduction of pollution quite tremendously. They can by reducing the greenhouse effect. As the author reports in the article, “In German Suburb Life Goes On Without Care” by Elisabeth Rosenthal, “Passenger cars are responsible for 12 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe… and up to 50 percent in some car-intensive areas in the United States.” Therefore, with cars being a leading factor of greenhouse gas emissions, reducing their usage would have a positive effect on the environment. After days of near-record pollution,
The transportation industry has continued to grow from the first production of the car in the 1990s by Karl Benz. Since this time there have been an outstanding number of model cars, airplanes, buses, motorcycles and scooters, and many other transportation vehicles that uses the standard type of fuel, gasoline. Society as a whole has yet to realize the harmful effects gas powered vehicles have on our ecosystem. Unfortunately, due to lack of this information, the overwhelming price difference between the types of transportation, and convenience, this ever-growing problem my never change until it's too late.
“1 gallon of gas =24 pounds of global warming emissions” (UCSUSA). Many of the people in our world today don’t understand just how much The Automobile affects us, our lives, and the world we live in. Undoubtedly, the invention of the car has changed our perspective on the different technology created over the past years. However, cars are some of the leading factors towards one of the largest ongoing problems occurring in our world today. That problem goes by the name of global warming. “Since 1990, Transportation has been one of the fastest growing sources of U.S. GHG” (U.S.D.T), otherwise known as Greenhouse gasses. In which most of us know; global warming affects our health, environment, weather, and ultimately our lives. It is a
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
The burning of gasoline by automobiles releases carbon dioxide and other types of air pollution
Motor vehicles are a leading source of air pollution. Even though automobile and truck engines have become far cleaner in recent decades, the sheer
Every day, millions of Americans turn on the engines of their cars and drive to school or work. What these people do not realize is that the vehicles they operate greatly pollute the planet. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent website post, “Environmental Impacts from Automobiles”,
With the supply of fossil fuels steadily declining, gas and oil is becoming harder to harvest which means it is getting more expensive. Fossil fuels take millions of years to be naturally produced, yet each person burns gallons of gas per day (Maehlum par. 5). Though fossil fuels are produced naturally, when burned they release nitrogen oxides gases into the atmosphere, which contributes to the formation of smog and acid rain. According to the EPA, major sources of these nitrogen oxide emissions come from cars and trucks, coal-fire powered plants, large industrial operations, and ships and airplanes (EPA par 3). By reducing the number of gas powered cars on the road, we can reduce the amount of harmful chemicals we are releasing into our atmosphere.
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
Automobile pollution increases global warming and causes severe damage to environmental and public health. Carbon dioxide emissions from automobile engines are the leading cause of global warming (Ridlington & Madsen, 2014). Temperatures across the country are experiencing a significant increase causing ice to melt and a rise in sea level. This results in frequent coastal flooding that consequently comes with devastating outcomes such as high
Since Henry Ford’s invention of the moving assembly line to mass produce civilian automobiles in 1913, the environment and air that we breathe every day is being ruined and polluted. Though people drive cars around every day with no worries, they still are damaging the world around them with every mile. Car emissions are causing multiple issues with the air and water sources. Harmful gases are being emitted from the cars and are messing up the natural gases already present in our atmosphere. These gases consist of sulfur-based substances and are polluting and contaminating the already present nitrogen oxide and other greenhouse gases up in the atmosphere. These harmful emissions then seep into our blue seas and clear lakes, poisoning the waters and killing the
“Automobiles have a large impact on the quality of our environment and public health. Automobile use affects virtually every aspect of environmental quality - including noise levels, air quality, water pollution, and urban sprawl. Ninety percent of the environmental impact of automobiles occurs through the operation of the cars: about 10 percent from the production, raw materials and disposal of
The amount of factories and industries has grown immensely through the previous years which has resulted in an expansion in the consumption of petroleum products. Innovation has begun to increase and has promoted the expansion of the production of cars. As stated by the Air Quality Research Center, “Air pollution is one of the most dangerous environmental problems, causing many adverse health effects and responsible for 50,000 deaths in the U.S. each year” (Air Pollution and Health – Air Quality Research Center.). The smog and
Air pollution levels have a large existence in big cities in Indonesia like Jakarta, Bandung, and so on. This problem happens because the number of motor vehicle use that is not limited [1]. Exhaust smog are the cause of air pollution which has the dangerous effects for people’s health. Exhaust smog is a result of burning fuel oil every motor vehicle. There are two types of burning fuel oil: the first is complete burning [2] and incomplete burning [3]. These types of burning have the differentiation in producing the remainder. Complete burning produces carbon dioxide as a result of remaining while incomplete burning produces carbon monoxide as a result of the rest. Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are gases that are harmful to people’s health and could decrease ozone layer [4] [5]. Exhaust smog is hazardous to people’s health. Exhaust smog is a result of burning fuel oil [6]. Consequently, exhaust smog has possibility to contain carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide gas. These harmful gases affect human respiration. Carbon monoxide makes the respiratory system becomes worse. Carbon monoxide will interfere with the process of hemoglobin in breathing [7]. As a result, people will not only feel lack of oxygen but also often feel dizzy and weak. In the other hand, carbon dioxide causes dizziness and fatigue to the sufferer [8]. In the prevention and reduction of the impact of exhaust smog, the Indonesian government decided all motor vehicle users have to check
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