Transportation and Air Pollution in the United States Essay

The number one reason why electric cars became popular is the ability to reduce the air pollution. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) almost 30% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by transportation and most of them could be reduced by driving electric cars. The UK Department for Transport divides vehicle emissions in two categories: direct and life cycle. Direct emission are created by burning fuels while driving on the road. Petrol, diesel, and other alternative-fuel engines produce very high amounts of gases, that not only have impact on our health, but also on climate change. Gases like NO or CO2, that are known for causing many different respiratory illness. There is an estimate of 29,000 deaths a

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.

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

There are two main types of air pollution, particulate matter (PM) and ozone. Particulate matter is some tiny dust. For example, according to a beam of light at night there are countless dusts floating in the air. They are particle. Ozone is an invisible chemical gas in the air. When these gas touch with light will become smog. Factory and vehicles exhaust emissions have become the largest cause of PM and ozone pollution in the United States. If a plant wants to run, they need to burn fuel to provide power; however, a lot of particulate matter will float in the air when the factory burns fuel. When people drive cars can

Motor vehicles are a leading source of air pollution. Even though automobile and truck engines have become far cleaner in recent decades, the sheer

Cars consist of being the number one way of travel throughout the United States. We rely on them to transport us to work, activities and necessary destinations. With this constant use of vehicles, it has had a negative impact on the environment. Although cars were invented almost a century ago to make life easier with getting around, car pollution has been our number one source of air pollution and has significantly impacted our environment due to how accessible they are. Arising problems such as air pollution, global warming, and health issues of americans, we have to come to the understanding that our environment is at risk if the amount of car pollution continues to increase.

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

A controversy issue in the United States is whether or not we should be involved in the controlling international pollution. Pollution is problem world-wide. Many would like to be involved in pollution while others would not. I believe that the United States should not be involved in the controlling of international pollution.

Water Pollution has been an increasing problem over the last few years. Pollution comes from many different things; agricultural, urban runoff, industrial, sedimentary, animal wastes, and leeching from landfills/septic systems just to name a few (Resources). The reason why pollution has increased over the years is because the rise in population and the advancements in technology the society has made. If society plans on having their resources here for many years to come they are going to have to make some drastic changes in the way they treat the earth, and these changes will have to start with their pollutants (Foundation).

The stationary sources are such as industrial facilities and oil refineries while the transportation agents include trucks and cars. In comparison to other cities in U.S, those in California have too many cars. For instance, Los Angeles has too many vehicles exceeding the carrying capacity of the area which plays a role in the horrible air pollution of Southern California. The burning of fossil fuels from the industrial facilities and exhaust pipes of the vehicles lead to the formation of a ground level ozone. Over a period, the deteriorating of the air quality in California has resulted in greater health risks among residents.

For the past few years, the American Lung Association has been releasing its annual reports on the “State of The Air” that lists the most polluted cities in the United States. For instance, in 2014, out of the seven cities ranked to have the worst air quality, six of them are in California. The two major air pollution culprits in California are from the transportation sources such as trucks and cars, or from the stationary sources such as industrial facilities and refineries (Ierodiakonou, et al. 392). However, the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association includes other pollutants in their reports such as Sulphur(IV) oxide, Carbon(II) Oxide gas and Nitrogen(IV) Oxide from chemical industries, which also causes harm to human beings and the environment at large.

The American Auto Industry, in the form of vehicles it produces, account for almost one-fifth of emissions in the United States. Subtracting emissions created from production,

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.

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 is an indispensable part of human, animal and plant lives. Without it, no organisms would be able to survive on Earth (Reference, 2017). Due to excessive human activities, air pollution has become a detrimental worldwide issue in current days (Sciencing, 2017). However, scientists have found new chemicals that can assist in improving the air quality (Phys.org, 2017). Moreover, humans are able to adopt many methods to help decrease the severity of contamination released into the earth’s atmosphere. This investigation is linked to ‘application and limitation’ in ‘science as a Human Endeavour’.