The hottest global topic today is the environment. Transportation is one of the leading causes of global warming today and things must change globally to prevent catastrophe. Several countries are pushing to make significant environmental changes; Brazil, Japan, and Denmark being front-runners. Brazil has mad some remarkable changes in the automobile industry by introducing ethanol-fueled cars. One third of cars sold in Brazil today can run both on gasoline and ethanol. This allows the drivers to choose between the two, generally choosing the economical ethanol fuel. Ethanol is an alcohol that is from the sugar cane plant, which is abundant in Brazil. This idea has risen in North America, but North American ethanol is produced from corn and the carbon emissions put into growing the crop doesn’t significantly change the carbon emissions.
Several Japanese automobile manufacturers in the past few years have revolutionized the automobile industry by introducing hybrid fuel vehicles. These vehicles join a gasoline driven engine and an electric motor. These cars use the fuel-efficient gasoline engine while driving at high speeds, but when idling and driving at slow speeds the electric motor kicks switches on. The most fuel-efficient car on the roads today is the Toyota Prius. This car can cut your carbon dioxide emissions by 70 per cent. Several scientists and professionals worldwide believe that this is what’s required for the climate to stabilize by 2050. Europe is leading the charge by investing very much in the hybrid technology. They have also begun research on a compressed-air car for the future. Flannery believes that hydrogen technology is inefficient and that hybrid fuel cars are the most effective. While explaining the compressed-air car, Flannery describes a potential family in Denmark that could use their windmills to power their house and to compress the air for their cars, allowing them to have a very small environmental footprint.
Automobile pollution is noticed the most because cars are everywhere, but there are other means of transportation that are causing serious air pollution. Cargo shipping and air travel are major producers of air pollution. Cargo shipping has doubled over the past 10 year and has become a major source of air pollution. These ships run on a thick fuel that must be heated before used. It is the leftover fossil fuel from previous production. Going back to wind-powered travel could be the only way to make shipping a carbon free way of transportation. Air travel is the fastest growing source of CO2 emissions. Contrails are trails of water vapour generated by jet aircrafts. These can create cirrus clouds, which cover thirty per cent of the planet. These clouds have a serious impact on global climate, and if planes were to fly lower without affecting airtime, it could cut cirrus cloud formation in half, resolving this issue.
1. How long do you think it will take before the compressed air cars begin commercial production?
2. You talked about transportation and its effect on the environment. Which of the three do you believe causes the most damage?
3. How long do you think it will take for all commercial automobiles to run on gasoline alternatives?
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