Ways To Stop Global Warming
As defined in wikipedia.org, global warming is a term that "refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation." The average air temperature near the Earth's surface has increased with almost 1°C during the last century, and this effect is mostly due to the increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations. The problem is absolutely real, but there are still ways to stop global warming. The main cause for global warming is the extremely high concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. This causes the so called greenhouse effect, in which the CO2 in the atmosphere traps the sun rays that have bounced back from the surface of the earth from going back to space. This makes the temperature in the atmosphere to increase. The transportation industry is the biggest CO2 emitter, and that's why the most efficient way to stop global warming is to switch our entire transport to alternative fuels or make our vehicles more fuel efficient. In 2002, Volkswagen produced an ultra fuel-efficient car with a super stingy fuel consumption rating of just 1 liter per 100 kilometers (282 mpg). This car is scheduled for mass-production in 2010.
Petroleum fuels have many advantages as vehicle fuels. Oil can still be discovered and pumped from the ground in many parts of the world for as little as ten or twenty cents per gallon. Gasoline and diesel fuel pack more energy per gallon than other fuels. Most important, our country's vast transportation infrastructure (refineries, pipelines, service stations, vehicle assembly plants, etc.) has been designed and optimized for petroleum fuels. On the other hand, petroleum fuels have certain drawbacks. Emissions of reactive hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and oxides of nitrogen from gasoline and diesel vehicles contribute significantly to the air pollution that plagues most large American cities. Carbon dioxide emissions from petroleum fuel combustion add to the atmospheric build-up of greenhouse gases and the potential for global warming. The United States consumes far more oil than it can produce domestically, leading to concerns over our energy and national security. There are several alternative (i.e., nonpetroleum) fuels, such as methanol, ethanol, natural gas, propane, electricity, and hydrogen, that could reduce vehicle emissions of conventional and greenhouse pollutants and could be produced from domestic feedstocks. Unfortunately, to varying degrees, a transition to one or more of these fuels could decrease vehicle range and increase the overall cost of the U.S. transportation system, particularly during the transition when infrastructure modifications would be necessary. The most familiar transportation fuels in this country are gasoline and diesel fuel, but any number of energy sources are capable of powering motor vehicles. These include alcohols, electricity, natural gas, and propane. Some vehicle fuels, because of physical or chemical properties, create less pollution than do today's gasolines. These are called "clean fuels." Cars operating on today's gasolines emit complex mixtures of compounds that lead to the formation of ground-level ozone; many of these compounds are also toxic. A lot has been done to reduce automobile pollution, from development of innovative emission control technologies to establishment of Inspection and Maintenance programs. But each year sees more cars on the road, traveling more miles, and the pollution control measures taken so far have not been sufficient to solve the ozone problem in many large cities. |