Environmental Impacts of Hybrid Cars
"The public that (is) buying cars and trucks want to see less dependency on foreign oil."
~ Ed LaRocque, a vehicle manager for Toyota North America
The population of the world tops six billion and is continuing to rise. Over the last
century, the quantity of fossil fuel consumed has mounted almost five times faster
than the population! As a consequence, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is
more than 360 parts per million and escalating.
 The more than 600 million motor
vehicles in the world account for the predominant use of oil, the world's prevailing
fuel. In the U.S. alone, there are more vehicles than licensed drivers, traveling over
two trillion miles a year and burning 120 billion gallons of gas - resulting in over a
billion tons of CO2 emissions per year.
Even though there have been major
efforts to reduce vehicle pollutants over
the last several decades, the everincreasing
number of motor vehicles on
U.S. roads, which release toxic emissions
while they burn thousands of gallons of
fuel every second, contribute to at least
one third of the country's overall pollution.
A gallon of gas weighs around six pounds;
when burned the carbon in the gas mixes with the oxygen from the atmosphere
resulting in around 19 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) being released. If you add the
energy expended in making and distributing the fuel, the total global warming impact
is comparable to 28 pounds of CO2 emissions per gallon. Global warming, climate
changes, heart, lung and respiratory disease as well as cancer are all potential results
of these and other pollutants.
Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases - compounds that allow the earth's
atmosphere to confine heat much as a plant greenhouse does. Too much of these
gases cause global warming - a rise in temperatures above their normal range. Global
warming poses many threats, including disease, climatic catastrophes and agricultural
devastation.
The United States is the world's largest producer of CO2. U.S. motor vehicles use over
eight million barrels of oil per day, costing roughly $200,000 per minute to import.
More than 50% of U.S. oil is imported - 25% from Persian Gulf countries. Petroleum
products supply more than 95% of America's transportation energy requirements.
Besides air quality, the process of extracting oil creates other harmful effects - oil
spills, underground fuel storage tank leaks and tropical forest destruction are a few.
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