Green Transport: What Is the Most Viable Current Solution?

Naseer uddin Khalid

Razia Waseem

Writing and Communication

SS-100 section 9

14th November 2011.

Green Transport: What is the most viable current solution?

If oil discovery and consumption follow current trends, the world oil resource will be used up by about 2038 (Ehsani et al, 1). The developed world is faced with two very serious problems. They are global warming and depleting oil reserves, both stemming from one cause; rising fuel consumption. Al gore said: "Each one of us is a cause of global warming, but each one of us can make choices to change that with the things we buy, the electricity we use, the cars we drive; we can make choices to bring our individual carbon emissions to zero. The solutions are in our hands, we just have to have the determination to make it happen.” At present all vehicles rely on the combustion of hydrocarbon (HC) fuels to derive the energy necessary for their propulsion. This combustion process produces energy (which is used to drive the vehicle) and also certain byproducts which are released into the atmosphere. Most of these byproducts or gaseous emissions are severely damaging to human health and the environment. For example the oxides of nitrogen, produced in the internal combustion engine (ICE) and then released into the atmosphere can react with atmospheric water to form ‘’acid rain’’ which is responsible for the destruction of rain forests in industrialized countries. Furthermore they can take part in a reaction forming highly reactive radicals which attack the membranes of living cells in the lungs, measurably decreasing lung function and in severe cases even destroy lung tissue, leading to emphysema (Ehsani et al, 1). Moreover, one of the emissions is carbon dioxide, a green-house gas and one of the root causes of global warming. Such a gas traps the sun’s infrared radiations inside the earth’s atmosphere, increasing the temperature and causing undesirable changes in ecosystems. Emission from automobiles makes up one third of the world’s total emissions of carbon dioxide, which is more than the emissions that are produced both by homes and by factories across the globe. If the world does not work to reduce these pollutants, then mankind is going to face the terrifying effect associated with global warming much, much sooner than it is actually going to be prepared for.

Then there is the question of limited hydrocarbon reserves. The process of the formation of HC reserves is one which takes millions of years and so it should be clear that for man these reserves are finite. All these are issues of paramount concern. Even though the internal combustion engine is one of the greatest achievements of human ingenuity, the rapidly increasing number of automobiles