Behind the Wheel

By Mary Goddard

One of the most eagerly anticipated milestones of the teenage years is the opportunity to sit behind the steering wheel of one’s own car and the freedom to hit the road!

Of course, as usual, with freedom comes added responsibility: the burden of car payments, insurance, adding a few gallons of gas now and then and keeping the car properly maintained. (Believe me, if your household is anything like mine, the gas tank doesn’t magically get filled and the oil doesn’t get changed by garden gnomes while you’re sleeping!)

Beyond these mundane day-to-day obligations there are deeper, long term questions to ask ourselves before turning the key… How are my driving choices going to affect the health of this planet and the wildlife which makes our world such a beautiful place to live? Are my children and grandchildren going to be able to live in comfort and travel as they wish, or is my generation using precious natural resources at such an alarming rate future generations will have to do without? Does it really matter as long as we get to go to the mall and drive to the beach whenever we want?

Fortunately, we have lots of choices in the way we drive and in the type of car we drive, which can make an enormous difference in the future of our planet. Gasoline powered automobiles may be the king of the road today, but they’re definitely not the future of transportation. Some experts believe that worldwide oil production has already peaked and a global energy crisis could be upon us as soon as 2020, while others expect $70 per barrel oil prices to stimulate production in vast, hard to reach oil reserves such as the oil sands of Canada and the shale oil deposits of the Rocky Mountains. Either way you look at it, there are roughly 1.2 trillion barrels of proven oil reserves around the world and we’re using about 30 billion barrels of oil a year, so in 40 years, our grandchildren will be running out of oil. Long before then however, shrinking oil supplies and increased demand will have pushed the price of gas far out of the reach of an average consumer.

As if that weren’t bad enough, gasoline powered cars are a major source of pollution including nitrogen oxides, particulates and carbon monoxide (the primary components of smog). A British study cited in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health suggests that exposure of expectant mothers to these pollutants is the most likely cause of childhood cancers. Furthermore, since gasoline powered vehicles use fossilized carbon deposits trapped in the earth for millions of years and combine them with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, 40% of greenhouse gasses produced in states such as California are coming from cars.

Scientists are divided on the long term impact of greenhouse gasses with regards to global temperature, but recent statistics and powerful storms such as Hurricane Katrina suggest that global warming is a very real problem, which is just likely to get worse as we continue to drive and pump higher and higher levels of CO2 into our atmosphere.

So what are the alternatives? First of all, we can choose more fuel efficient vehicles. Even without investing in more expensive hybrid technology, it’s possible to improve your gas mileage by up to 4 times simply by downsizing. Not only will this save precious resources, it also cuts back on harmful emissions and greenhouse gasses in proportion to the improved mileage. Can’t afford a new car? That’s okay. There are many quick, inexpensive ways to get more miles-per-gallon out of your present car.

Try keeping your tires properly inflated, your car tuned up, replace faulty sensors and your air filter to add miles to each tank full of gas. Driving the speed limit and avoiding rapid acceleration or lots of braking can do the same.

Of course, no matter how exceptional the fuel economy might be, a gasoline powered vehicle will never be totally environmentally friendly. But with advances in technology, the goal of a clean renewable energy source for our personal vehicles could be in sight. The first generation of such cars is already on the roads with the commercial release of hybrids which use a nickel-metal hydride battery supplemented by an internal combustion engine to yield substantial fuel savings. Already we are seeing savings of up to 50% over traditional technologies, and new hydraulic drive train designs offer even greater potential savings with corresponding reductions in harmful emissions and greenhouse gasses.

The next logical step, a fully electric car, powered by a bank of rechargeable batteries, but this is hardly a new concept. Electric cars have been around for over 100 years. For example, in 1889, Thomas Edison built an electric car using nickel-alkaline batteries. General Motors even offered a limited number of EV1 battery powered cars in the late 1990s in response to a California directive calling for 10% of all new car sales to be zero emission vehicles by 2003.

Unfortunately, the cost and limited capacity of the early batteries, along with resistance from the auto industry, the oil industry and the US government, doomed the EV1 and similar concept cars offered by other manufacturers. Unless consumers make their voices heard, the next generation of purely electric cars may be many years away.

Other automotive innovations being researched and developed at this time include hydrogen fuel and ethanol. From an environmental standpoint, hydrogen is the perfect fuel since combustion combines the hydrogen with oxygen to produce nothing but simple H2O (water) as a byproduct. Unfortunately, workable hydrogen fuel cell technology may be decades away and the mass production of hydrogen as an energy source is less efficient and creates more pollution than the generation of electricity.

Ethanol fuels, which are made from renewable crops such as corn and wheat, are also promising from an environmental point of view. Mixed with gasoline, ethanol reduces carbon monoxide and ozone emissions by 10 to 30% and greenhouse gas emissions by half.

Since ethanol does not draw upon fossilized carbons, it simply recycles the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere instead of adding ever increasing levels of CO2 to the air. Finally, ethanol is perfect for our long term energy needs since it is a renewable resource. Of course, there are drawbacks. Ethanol fuels yield less miles per gallon than regular gasoline and production and distribution facilities are still quite limited in many areas. Furthermore, the energy cost of producing ethanol fuels is still raising concerns. Considering the ever-increasing demand for fuel, and the limited supply of crude oil available to us, ethanol definitely shows promise.

Confused by all the choices? Not ready to convert to ethanol or invest in a new car? That’s okay. You can still make a difference. Just walk or ride your bike instead of driving. You’ll save fuel and help our environment. You can also plant and nurture a tree. Trees remove greenhouse gasses and pollutants from our air and reduce energy consumption in the summer by cooling our homes. It may not seem like much, but together we can make a BIG difference. Please don’t just watch from the sidelines. Join in and do your part.