Everybody might have already heard about greenhouse effect. This signifies the warming that results when the earth's atmosphere traps the sun's heat. It is created by carbon dioxide, methane, and other atmospheric gases, which allow sunlight to reach the earth but prevent heat from bouncing off to the atmosphere. These heat-trapping gases are called “greenhouse gases.”
Burning fuel leads the major increase the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Such an increase is intensifying the greenhouse effect and inflating the temperatures worldwide. This is now called global warming, that could effect the melting of glaciers and polar icecaps that will eventually flood coastal areas. Global warming also shifts rainfall patterns, creating more droughts and severe tropical storms affecting more areas around the world.
All the conditions mentioned above accuses the foremost reliance of people to petroleum and gasoline-fed machines as tools to ease their everyday life. Thus, it is now of concern to find alternative sources of fuel that is environment-friendly. The most recently significant improvement may be the electric and hybrid powered cars. An electric vehicle uses batteries to “fuel” an electric motor to move. Electric vehicles produce no tailpipe emissions. Battery electric vehicles involves low speed, neighborhood electric vehicles, other major industrial equipments and even city buses. The electric motor presents some noticeable pros and cons over the conventional combustion engine. Because it never uses petroleum to supply power to the engine, it runs clean, devoid of any emissions. The electricity generally come from many external sources that run on coal, nuclear, or hydroelectric power. Scientists have the same opinion that pollution at these plants could be better controlled and the local smog produced by cars would disappear. Particularly appealing to countries like China, which has few natural oil reserves, the electric car called EV1 can be recharged at stations equipped with a charging device or even at the comforts of your home. It is also far quieter than a conventional engine because an electric car has fewer movable parts and thus needs less service.
At the moment, the major downside of an electric vehicle befall on the batteries that store its source of energy. The storage is sufficient only to limited driving range. The EV1 can go approximately fifty to seventy miles per charge, less if the air conditioner is used or in cold climates. With this problem, coupled with the inconvenience caused by the limited availability of charging stations, makes the car unacceptable for long trips. For many reasons, the hybrid engine has emerged as the more practical power source in our near future. Combining the powers both an electric motor and an internal combustion gas-driven engine, hybrid cars has the benefit of both types of power sources without the problems of the ultra-clean but limited range electric cars. These cars produce significantly lower emissions and get outstanding gas mileage.
Continuously recharged by the gasoline engine and through regenerative braking, the hybrid’s batteries never requires recharging. Sophisticated hybrids like the Honda VV and the Toyota Prius are run by computer that automatically alternates between gas engine and electric motor depending on the driving situation. The Prius utilizes the electric motor in early acceleration when in conventional cars—this is when a lot of fuel consumption occurs. Faster acceleration may require both engines. However, in stop-and-go city traffic, speed isn’t a big factor, the hybrid cars could easily switch to electric power. Eventually there is little reason why hybrid technology can’t be applied to other larger types of vehicles, including public buses, sedans, trucks, vans and SUVs.
Hybrid engines are quite a necessary step for our society to retain our current mobile lives while conserving gasoline and reducing air pollution. First of all, gasoline will not be perpetually available. Oil, which is required to make gasoline, is a non-renewable resource that would soon be used up. Several people don’t believe will run out of oil because they argue that there is so much that is undiscovered or just difficult and expensive to reach.
Although it is factual, it is unclear how much oil is still not discovered, the amount used vastly outnumbers the amount found in new sources. That is a good indication that oil production is slowing down and its prices are skyrocketing, not because of choice, but because it now difficult to find. There is less of it now, literally. However, the depletion of oil may be slowed All of these innovations in the automobile industry represent an early step in the transformation to modernize it.
These automobiles are just but a preview of the first generation in the re-evaluation of the modernizing our cars in the future. Some of these cars are in production, some will be soon and some are prototypes that may never come to the market in their present form. The ideal car of the future is likely to incorporate and synthesize certain elements from each one, a major factor would be the minimizing of the usage of gasoline and petroleum-based products.
The problems that arise from these modern automobiles and their users have exacerbated, may it be pollution, overcrowding and the precariousness of oil reserves, optimism on the exceptional technology that will be available shortly is assurance that a step is being taken. These modern cars offer very real and bright solutions. They are produced by major manufacturers and should be available at reasonable prices.
An innovation that is too expensive for widespread application would defeat its purpose. With the circumstances we have in hand, one can be hopeful that human ingenuity will meet the challenges necessary to permit the continued use and proliferation of the private automobile. Of course, with a vital concern on its impacts to the world we are all living in.
