Guardian: Half of global car exhaust produced by US vehicles. ⇒
29 June 2006, lunch time
I can't imagine this could be true; well no, I can imagine it, it just seems quite high.
This is a post from my link log: If you click the title of this post you will be taken the web page I am discussing.
I think the news is one of the worst polluters out there.
by rishi on June 29 2006, 12:39 pm #
That’s probably not true. Old Coal plants are probably much worse for example.
by ramanan on June 29 2006, 12:41 pm #
Well, the article focuses on carbon dioxide produced by US vehicles. Of course, cars don’t just produce carbon dioxide. The internal combustion engine is also known for spitting out nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, benzene, unburned hydrocarbons, and a host of other poisonous solids and gases. I think it’s also important to note that carbon dioxide is also a major by-product of animal respiration and is required for plant photosynthesis.
The article might as well say that half of the water in the world’s car exhaust is produced by the US. Although, that probably wouldn’t have had the same effect.
by rishi on June 29 2006, 1:13 pm #
The US society is very car-oriented – everyone has a car and they drive it everywhere and tend to live relatively far from work, shopping, entertainment, etc. So Americans drive a lot. And they like their SUVs.
A lot of other countries tend to be more compact (in size and the size of their cities), favour smaller cars (or scooters), and offer reasonable alternatives (bikes, trains, public transportation), outright discourage cars (e.g. there is 180% car tax in Denmark), or have citizens too poor to buy/use cars.
So if you think about it, 50% isn’t that surprising.
by Ryan on June 30 2006, 1:07 am #