Should Cars be more Efficient

Chapter 6, “The Burden of History: Expectations Past and Imperfect” from Kirsch’s book, The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History, focuses on the problem of automobiles in the modern day. Kirsch states that internal combustion engines release greenhouse gasses, which harm the environment. Each individual contributes to air pollution

The development of fuel-efficient cars was primarily in response to the OPEC oil crisis of the nineteen-seventies and the dramatic rise in gasoline prices for American motorists. Up until the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Americans drove high-powered, gas guzzling cars. Gasoline was cheap and consumers were not interested in purchasing fuel-efficient cars. As a result, the Detroit automakers did not design or produce fuel-efficient cars. Within a few years, the market demand changed with skyrocketing oil prices. Fuel-efficient cars became a necessity, in the eyes of the consumer and in the eyes of the auto industry and the American government.

“If you pick any car to own and drive, what car would it be?” Everyone wants to drive fast, sports, and expensive cars such as: Bugatti, Ferrari, GTR, etc. These cars are great cars, but people want them because it is a want and a luxury, not worrying about anything but their own desires. Cars have quite a few corresponding events just to drive them. These could include things like buying gas or paying for maintenance. This is a huge problem for people of any age. They could be high schoolers using their job to pay for their car, or adults having to commute far to get to their job. Another huge problem that cars help fuel is the bad environmental effects that are created by the emissions than gasoline cars release. There are some solutions to some problems people may be having dealing with their traditional, gasoline cars. The biggest solution to this problem is to would be to change the fuel source of the car. They can be changed to fuel sources such as: Propane, Hydrogen, Electric, Biodiesel, or Ethanol. The only problem faced when changing to these other fuel sources is that they are not high in demand. The demand in alternative fuels needs to increase instead of focusing mainly on gasoline cars to help keep the environment safe. Alternative fuels are not in demand right now, so there are not many stations to fuel up on the alternative gases. The increase in demand of alternative fueled cars will help keep the environment healthier, as well as giving people the perks

One of the major factors of fossil fuels are vehicles. Vehicles emit harmful gases into the air such as particulate matter, hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, greenhouse gases, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide. Emissions from vehicles are dangerous to the elderly, people who have asthma, small children such as infants, and anyone who may have a different disease such as cancer. When these aforementioned subjects breathe in the emissions from vehicles it may cause health problems, or even worse- death. In order to minimize the health risks and problems, individuals can conserve energy and minimize the miles by doing tasks such as carpooling or walking (Nutrient Pollution).

The following report outlines the impacts that motor vehicles have on the environment as well as detailed strategies aimed at minimizing these impacts. The conducted research found that the effects of motor vehicles cause significant harm to the environment in various ways. Through the emission of toxic and greenhouse gases as well as the usage and disposal of non-renewable resources, a number of environmental symptoms were occurring:

There is no question that pollution from automobiles is a major problem in industrialized countries and is increasing in developing nations. And the number of cars is increasingly rapidly: in the United States, the automobile population has increased 6X faster than the human population and 2X faster than the number of new drivers (Motavelli, 2000). At the same time, the average fuel economy of the 2001 fleet decreased to 20.4 miles per gallon, the same it was in 1980. This decrease is fueled by the growing trend in

Gasoline dominates in today’s industry and has a significant impact on the face of the earth in terms of climate change and economy. Some of the important and practical alternatives to current option – fossil fuels-primarily gasoline and diesel, and the Issues related to them are discussed in the following text.

Many conflicting studies have taken place on the effects of our pollution, and it is beyond the scope of this writing to analyze whether, in fact, a real threat exists. However, there is certainly a very real possibility of such a threat of pollution seriously affecting our climate, and as a result, pollution is a driving force as well as oil demands in the production and development of electric vehicles. In this case, though, the demand for oil would be a much more important driving force as it is economic in nature and people tend to be much more motivated by economic factors than environmental ones -- especially considering that the next oil crisis is likely to be far worse than that which took place in the 1970s if a transition to a renewable fuel source does not take place.

The use of automobiles has since increased in the US and other parts of the world. By 1999, the US alone had over 200 million passenger cars and light trucks. The number of cars worldwide grew thrice faster than the human population. The increase in the number of automobiles has become a matter of great concern as it leads to serious air pollution. For instance, European Environment Agency reported that transportation emission presents a huge threat to the environment.

Fossil fuels have been used to power our vehicles since the invention of the car in the late 19th century. And with more people driving cars over the years, the total consumption of oil has increased dramatically. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States used 8.8 million barrels of gasoline (368 million gallons) a day for transportation in 2014 (Energy Information Administration). This is an alarming rate, considering the world only has so much oil. The EIA has predicted that the world has enough oil to carry the industries that rely on it through 2040 (Energy Information Administration). Beyond that, it is uncertain if we will have enough oil, not only for transportation, but also for the thousands of other industries that depend on it as their primary source of energy.

The report examines the detrimental impact of increasing usage of automobiles on the environment in Singapore. It seeks to investigate these following questions:

One of the most important issues in the future of transportation is to decrease emissions. The amount of people that are driving individual vehicles will also need to be reduced. One of the bigger problems is that we are using our fossil fuels in a bad manner and the

The Industrial Revolution was the spearhead for several generations of heavy pollution. The engines that are being used to make work easier emit large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). The Earth 's atmosphere is designed to handle a fair amount of carbon dioxide, but in the past century people have produced much more than it can manage. Global warming has become a recurring topic in many news stories since the late 1990 's. With the spotlight on emission control vehicle manufacturers have started designing much more fuel efficient engines. Hybrid vehicles that use both an internal combustion engine and an electric power source have become highly popular amongst commuters. According to the Washington Post, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has required the U.S auto-fleet to average 54.5 mpg by the year 2025 (Eilperrin). This will put a lot of pressure on engineers to make an engine that has a high output and is efficient. It is vital that something is done about the vast amount of pollution that is plaguing the world. If we continue destroying the environment at our current rate, there is only a number of decades left in our future.

In the light of ever-increasing greenhouse gases, global energy use, the increasing cost of energy services, concerns over energy supply security, climate change and local air pollution, this report centers around the question of how CO2 emission can be reduced in long term. As transport system plays a major role in the increased greenhouse gases, this report highlights the use of future vehicles in the transport sector from an economic, technical and environmental point of view.

But the government is perhaps less keen for people to know that this apparently shocking move may not actually achieve anything at all. For it will only take effect in 2040, by which time market forces Are likely to have largely complete the transition from fossil fuels to electricity-powered vehicles