Urban air pollution and the automobile Research Paper

Urban air pollution and the automobile - Research Paper Example The atmosphere of the earth is a thin cover composed of different gases and water vapors and is a great blessing for mankind as it surrounds the whole earth and sustains the human life on this planet. The vertical thickness and density of the atmosphere depends upon different ecosystems. The atmosphere along with its different ecosystems plays a significant role to maintain the overall planet’s temperature and in provision of coal, oil, food crops, and drinking water to human society. Man has exploited endlessly the available resources and has always assumed that they are inexhaustible. Today human has realized that he has been constantly disturbing the ecological balance and fast finishing the life-supporting systems on the earth. Urban pollution is caused by many factors like industrial and thermal power plants, but more importantly by vehicular emissions. As a result, the outdoor air quality in urban areas has deteriorated significantly. Statistics reveals that in last 30 t o 40 years, the concentrations of suspended particulate matter in huge cities like Mexico, New York, Tokyo, Mumbai, Karachi, Seoul, Beijing, Bangkok, and New Delhi etc were four to five times higher than levels recommended by world health organization (Brown, 1999). A substantial increase in the number of vehicles on urban roads continues to drive up levels of urban air pollution. Common gases emitted by vehicles include carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, and ozone. These all gases are dangerous to human health beyond certain levels of concentration. Poly-aromatic hydrocarbons released by diesel-powered vehicles are known carcinogens, while smoke from diesel engines has aggravated already elevated levels of airborne soot. Nitrous oxides are emerging air pollutants with the highest concentrations recorded in metropolitans. Thesis Statement. People have right to use car, but there are many solution to save our environment; such as, public transportation and government should make rules to use car. The following paragraphs will deal this statement by describing the beneficiary management and role of public transportation, fuel used by different types of cars, and the corrective preventive measures to control the urban pollution produced by automobiles. II. Public Transportation As compared to 100 years ago, no doubt today human being is enjoying much better mode of travelling throughout the world like presently cars, buses, trams, trains, and subways are facilitating millions of human being daily. According to World Resource Institute (2008), all these transportations contribute to almost 25% of the overall global energy consumption while cars are responsible for about 80%. Since automobiles are major cause of emission of greenhouse gases in atmosphere (Fenger et al, 1999), therefore in respect of urban pollution, the use of public transport is very beneficial because per head it produces less greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere than cars. Secondly, the us e of public transportation is cost effective both at individual and national level. Although the use of public transportation is less glamorous, however, it keeps the individual free of searching the parking, fuel, and maintenance of personal vehicle. An integrated and well-planned network of public transportation have shown much better results in reduction of greenhouses gases and other pollutant material into air. For example in United States, there were almost 1.6 cars for every two Americans in 2005 while at the same time 160 Americans were entertained by a single trolleybus. By the advent of trams in Europe, great results have been observed. Trams and trains carry millions of people inside the city on regular basis and thus prevent the society from further automobile pollution which could have been occurred by the use of their passengers. III. Fuel of Vehicles Numbers of fuel options are available now days for the owners to use in their vehicles. However,