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The Automobile and the Environment
In today’s society, the automobile is often stereotyped as the environmentalist’s infamous enemy. While the bases of many of these stereotypes are accurate, it is also true that the development of the auto industry has helped to improve certain conditions in our environment. With each progression of automobile technology and industry brings new and equal concerns in the realms of public safety, public health, the economy and the environment. Consequently, engineers and activists are constantly searching for a medium that will satisfy the human need for speed and will keep in tact the fragile world around us.
Nearly one hundred years ago the concept of a car was still waiting to be born. The idea of transportation, however, had been around for thousands of years. By the turn of the 20th century, the quickest and most efficient method of moving was still
by horseback. As urbanization crowded more and more people into tighter vacinaties, so were more horses found on city streets. The increase of horseback riders and horses resulted in a large increase of manure. Fred L. Smith, former senior policy analyst for the Environmental Protection Agency reported that the average horse produced 45 pounds of manure a day. This contributed to enormous waste problems many years ago. As the manure accumulated, it required constant collection and disposal. Stagnant waste led to flies, dried dung dust, and the stench of urine. Further, people often-developed lung complications and disease due to the lack of proper sanitation. Even more problems resulted from the disposal of dead horses. New York City reported the disposal of 15,000 corpses each year during 1890’s. Often body...
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- “The Automobile, Environmentally Friendly Habits for Canadian Drivers”. What We Can
Do: The Automobile. Internet Explorer. Online. Mar 2nd, 98.
www.pwc.bc.doe.ca/corp/press/eweek/grhome/transpot.html
- Bast, Joseph. “How Automobiles Have Cleaned Up Their Act”. Earth Day ’96.
Internet Explorer. Online. Mar 1st, 98.
www.heartland.org/earthday96/autos.htm
- “Environmental Benefits”. Electric Vehicles-Battery Technologies. Internet
Explorer. Online. Mar 1st, 98.
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- “Lawryk, Nicolas J. Science News. 149:188. Mar 23rd , 96.
- “MMT In Gasoline”. Consumer Reports. 61:8. May 96.
- “Safe Brands Corporation featuring SIERRA Antifreeze-Coolant”. Safe Brands
Corporation. Internet Explorer. Online. Mar 1st, 98.
www.safebrands.com
Increasing environmental awareness, coupled with a responsible American government and improved technology, have all contributed to the comeback of low-and zero-emissions vehicles in the US. It remains to be seen whether the automakers and oil companies will once again work to halt this progress, or embrace it as the technology of a more responsible future.
The image of a self-propelled vehicle dates back around the early thirteenth century. Europe is the birthplace of the automobile, but it was adopted by America. Roger Bacon had a vision of cars being made without animals so they can be at astonishing speeds and maneuverability . About three hundreds years later, Leonardo Da Vinci rejuvenate Bacon's idea with hopes of creating a military vehicle. His idea was transformed into the modern day tank. The first step in making a self-propelled vehicle was taken by Nicholas Joseph Cugnot. He was an eighteenth century French artillery officer. "In 1769 he built and ran a three-wheeled carriage mounting a steam engine of his own design, with the idea that it might be used for pulling guns"2. It was very clumsy vehicle that was shot into the air when it reached the top speed of three miles an hour. Cugnot's vehicle provided almost no improvement of the horse. In the early years of the nineteenth century an American and British duo had began an automotive experiment. Richard Trevithick, a British engineer, and American genius, Oliver Evans created a workable but crude vehicle propelled by steam3. This early experiment was an improvement, but the railroads and stagecoach companies joined together. With this new combining of forces the new steam vehicle, the Orkuter Amphibolos, was brought down.
In the twentieth century, the introduction of the motor vehicle in the United States became not only noteworthy, but also vital in the development of modern American civilization. This technologically complex machine led citizens to vast future dependency on the invention. While mobility was suddenly not limited to alternative, more convoluted options such as railroad stations or bicycles, yet copiously amplified to aid convenience and expanded leisure opportunities. From auto-racing to redesigning infrastructure, motor vehicles allowed progression, digression, and essentially uttermost change to lifestyles of the American people.
Over the years, transportation has come a long way. However, before the time of automobiles, there were just a few options for transportation such as the horse, horse and
Since the development of the steam engine people had been interested in creating self-powered vehicles, this manifested during the industrial revolution as the train. However, as time went on people became interested in creating a vehicle that wasn’t confined to tracks. The earliest attempts were moderately successful but served little practical purpose. Automobiles first began to truly spread with the invention of the electric motor which created cheaper, more powerful, and safer automobiles. Still the automobile still had numerous problems and were mainly in the hands of the rich. It was the development of the internal combustion engine and the assembly line that was truly able to create a practical vehicle that could be used by all and propelled the automobile into the heart of American culture and made it one of the most significant inventions of the post-industrial revolution era, resulting in a complete revolution of society.
Starting in the late 1700’s, European engineers began messing with motor powered vehicles. By the mid 1800’s, steam, combustion, and electrical motors had all been attempted. By the 1900’s it wasn’t very clear on which type of engine would really power the automobile. At that time, electric cars were the most popular but there were no batteries at that time that would allow a car to move very fast or a long distance. Commercial production in the United States began at the beginning of the 1900’s. In the early 1900’s, the United States had about two thousand firms producing one or more cars.
Automobiles play a major role in today's society. Almost every American owns at least one motorized transportation vehicle. Some say they make our lives better by reaching places faster than before. Others say they are a harmful to the environment. Have they made our society better or worse? They may be fast, but do we as humans want our environment to suffer because of time. Face it, cars pollute. And they release destructive chemicals into the air. Air pollution can threaten the health of many subjects in the environment including human beings.
Within the last few decades cars have changed the way people travel. Back in the early 1900’s there were no automobiles, there were only horse and carriage. When Henry Ford created the first assembly line for a car, only the rich and famous would have ford cars. Now cars are easy to purchase as long as you can afford one. As time moves on cars continue to evolve and they are now easily accessible for anyone that wants a car, with fluctuating prices and even more customization choices, peoples are saving up their entire lives to buy their dream cars. Compared to the early twentieth century, cars have made it better to travel from place to place within days or hours while back a hundred years ago, it would take months or years to even get to the other side of the country. In conclusion, cars are the most reliable sources of transportation in the twenty-first century and that is why it is such a great contribution to the world.
Today, people try to find resources that do not impact on the ozone, or cost a large amount of money. Moreover, most people are not happy with unclean air, which causes an unhealthy environment to live in, and one of the reasons that make unclean air is a fossil fuel. There are millions of cars run daily, so they make the area impure; therefore, the electric cars are the solution for this problem. Electric cars powered by electric motors, and using renewable energy instead of gasoline, are more helpful. One author argues that electric cars are more useful than traditional cars to protect the environment, especially when they depend on the source that used.
Imagine that you’re driving on an open highway in the middle of summer. All you see in front of you is asphalt for miles and miles. The windows are down and your favorite song comes on the radio. You’re behind the wheel of a Tesla Model S, the newest electric car that can go from zero to sixty miles per hour in 2.4 seconds. This will soon be the future of all motor vehicles. Electric cars are beginning to have colossal impacts on our society because of their energy efficiency, performance benefits, and the fact that they are less harmful to the environment. In the near future, electric cars will dominate the road and eventually the planet’s overall need for oil will decrease immensely.
The majority of people, especially in America, cannot go about their daily lives without a car. Automobiles have instilled themselves in peoples’ lives and shown their usefulness since their debut in 1769. Since then, humans have redesigned and refined the automobile thousands of times, each time making the vehicle more efficient and economical than before. Now as the world approaches an ethical decision to dwarf all others, many people look toward automotives for yet another change. The emergence of the hypercar due to ecological turmoil exemplifies the change the world has demanded. Hypercars alter everything people know about automotives, modern ecology, and fuel efficiency. Not only do hypercars offer a solution to many ecological problems humans are faced with now, they also represent the only logical area for the automotive industry, and by some stretch American society, to expand.
So what was the original thinking behind the car? Well to get a person and their family from point A to point B in a faster time than a horse. And it has evolved greatly ever since, even starting to loop back to Edison’s original plan for an electric car. So its safe to say that that the automobile is one of, if not, the most influential inventions on the United states.
Today, people use their own personal vehicles to travel more than ever before. Personal transportation is no longer considered a luxury; it is now considered a necessity. The number of cars in the United States has been growing steadily since the 1970s. The number of miles traveled by cars has risen nearly 150 percent, yet the United States population has only grown roughly 40 percent during that time (hybridcars.com, Driving Trends). Although it may seem like we are advancing into the future, in reality, we are moving backwards from the effects these vehicles have on our bodies and the environment. The pollution produced by these vehicles has brought us to the day where we must find other modes of transportation that cause less harm to the world in which we live. Advances in technology have developed hybrid vehicles to try and slow down the amount of pollution. Driving a hybrid vehicle, instead of a conventional gas powered vehicle, can reduce the amount of pollution that affects our lives and the environment around us.
“The History of the Auomobile” The Impact of the automobiles on the 20th century. Web. 13 December 2014.
The fast population growth rate of humans means that the necessity for transportation vehicles is also enormously increasing. Studies have shown that in 1999 the worldwide number of vehicles registered was 700 million. From this huge number of vehicles, the US has a large share, which includes 200 million cars and light trucks. The number of cars worldwide also grew three times faster