What are the facts on cars and the environment?

Answer

Although the car is getting better in terms of fuel efficiency, consumption and emissions, there is still a long way to go. The main concern is that of carbon dioxide emissions. Currently Toyota lead the market for low emission cars. On average a standard five hatchback will produce 162 g/km of carbon dioxide, with the new cars such as the Prius some models have got this down to 80 g/km (e.g the Honda Insight - no longer made). Nobody is denying the obvious advantages to driving cars, however in an age where we have mass transport and integrated public service systems the need for individual personal transport should be decreasing.
Another factor is the damage caused by manufacture, operation and disposal of each vehicle. This is estimated at around 20-25% of the damage caused by burning the fuel in each vehicle. Note that electric cars are sometimes said to be zero CO2 polluters, but this ignores the manufacturing and disposal and other operating factors, and the CO2 produced in electricity generating stations. Other operating factors include fuel refining distribution for cars using petrol or diesel. Cars driven by solar panels may get closer to zero CO2, but the manufacturing of the panels is an additional concern.

The U.S is the world leader for numbers of cars in a country and unfortunately all of the carbon dioxide being expelled by those cars is contributing the global warming effects we are all noticing. Currently it is believed that reversing what we have done is impossible, but operations like carbon sequestration (look up at wikipedia) could stand to help things. hope this answers your question

 

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