Cars,pollution and health.doc

Cars, Air Pollution and HealthCars have two opposite personalities. One is friendly and attractive the other is destructive and can be lethal. The desire to own a car is linked to pleasure, sexuality, convenience and freedom. Men lust for attractive, prestigious cars they way they lust for women and women desire men with attractive, prestigious cars. Car manufacturers have long used attractive, lightly clad women to advertise their latest auto designs. Men are also interested in power, performance and want to know something about the engine, although modern engines are sufficiently complex to discourage even the professional mechanic. Some of the new engine complexity involves emission control systems that require electronic monitoring and adjustment of engine performance under different operating conditions. Several devices are added to the engine to handle air flow in, fuel delivery and exhaust out. Computers have been added to monitor and control engine performance. Most car engines designed after 1996 have a standard port that allows a diagnostic computer access to information about engine performance. Driving a car is the most polluting act an average citizen commits. Emissions from passenger vehicles are increasing in Canada and the US despite attempts to make engines more fuel efficient and despite the addition of antipollution devices. The main reason is that cars are getting bigger and pick-up trucks, vans and sports vehicles are often replacing smaller, lighter passenger cars. The average new vehicle in 2003 consumed more fuel that its counterpart in 1988. In the USA in 1987 cars averaged 25.9 miles to the gallon. Fuel efficiency dropped to 24.6 miles/gallon by 1998 and is dropping further as larger vehicles replace smaller ones. Despite scientific evidence, governments in most affluent countries have ignored their responsibility to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The USA is biggest emitter of greenhouse gases worldwide. US emissions have increased to 7 billion tones of CO2 in 2004, 16 % higher than emissions in the late 90s. The UK has done better reducing their emissions to about 0.6 billion tons, 14% below1990 levels. Exhaust from all combustion engines combine to produce local adverse effects on the health of car users and all innocent bystanders. Cities have become islands of toxic chemicals from the unrestrained use of vehicles burning fossil fuels. Cars are noisy, ugly, and often dangerous and dominate the experience of modern living.We are now used to the carnage onroads and highways- attempts to reduce death and disability from our motorized containers have not substantially altered the negative impact on society. The adverse health effects of car exhaust are pervasive and difficult to measure.Television Ads forsports and recreation vehicles show solitary, impeccable machinesin wilderness locations. One TV ad shows a couple making a mad dash to escape the city core in their expensive, luxury upholstered clone of the land-rover. The ads are selling a fantasy of wilderness and escape.Is the consumer is completely deluded? These vehicles are mostly found in suburban driveways and the traffic jams of polluted cities. They have nowhere to go to escape theenvironmental degradation they help to create. 4x4 drives and large tires are rarely useful and are not suited to highway driving; you see these machines, submerged in suburban driveways by the floods they helped to create. Combustion engines contribute to carbon dioxide accumulation in the atmosphere and are responsible for climate changes. A sane, sober revision of vehicle use is long overdue. What Can I do? Drive LessBoth local and global pollution would be dramatically improved if each car-driving person pledged to use their car 30% less starting immediately. Cities should reduce vehicular traffic by 30 % over the next 3 to 5 years. This is a realistic contribution. Each person can resist the temptation to buy larger, heavier cars, vans, trucks and sports vehicles. If you really need to drive off-roads in wilderness settings,you need a rugged clunker thats already got scratches, dents and mud on the tires. Carry a shovel,axe, chain saw, and a come-along in the back. If you can afford it, add a heavy duty winch up front. Stay off highways. StrategiesReduce number of Vehicles - Urban areas need to set vehicular quotas and permits are limited in number to control regional air pollution.Improve efficiency of vehicles - reverse the trend to larger vehicles; engineering solutions to emissions of combustion engines; new power sources such as fuel cells and new fuels such as methanol, propane,natural gas - ultimately, hydrogen. Improve efficiency of traffic - create dedicated bus lanes and give priority to car-pools and vehicles with 3 or more passengers. Traffic can be scheduled to optimize road usage; e.g. commercial traffic at night; large companies can staggered working hours and decentralize administrative operations. Commuting long distances in cars to work needs to be phased out. Single passenger commuting to work should be strongly discouraged.The use of cars must be re-defined. Car use has to be considered a privilege, not a right. The cost of environmental reclamation has to be added to the cost of owning and operating a car. Cars use can no longer be subsidized. Governments can encourage the reduction of vehicular use by: Promoting Voluntary abstention Increased Public Transit - diversify options andpriories access to existing roads. Separate commercial and private traffic to increase efficient use of roads Stop building car-oriented roads and highways Replace 30% of the existing roads designed for cars with a variety of transportation options In cities, build more walking paths, bicycle routes and paths for small elect