Running head: Environmental challenges facing the American auto industry 1
Environmental challenges facing the American auto industry
BUS1101 Unit 5 Written Assignment
University of the People
ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES FACING THE AMERICAN AUTO INDUSTRY 2
Environmental challenges facing the American auto industry
The traditional internal combustion engine has been the mainstream automobile power source and even after the next generation vehicle engines made an appearance. The new generation engines still have not entirely taken over its position as of yet. “One hundred years later, oil now accounts for about 95 percent of the global transportation sector fuel and 13 percent of global greenhouse gas emission. (Clements 2014)” The environmental damage from the internal combustion engine is still a major problem. “Cars produce dangerous chemicals such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxide (SOx) and carbon monoxide emissions. (Clements
2014)”. Another issue of the internal combustion engine is still low energy conversion efficiency even today. Only about 14 to 30 percent of the energy from the fuel in your car is converted to moving the car (Clements 2014)”. The auto company technologies and innovations indeed have been improving tremendously to contribute to reducing carbon emissions, dangerous pollutants, and to loss of energy in the last 20 years, however, the question is whether the industry still is able to provide better solutions or not.
Big Three car manufacturers have
The consumer plays a very large role, as two-thirds of U.S. oil consumption is accounted for by the transportation sector.
challenges, however, are the most difficult ones to face and overcome. Some environmental issues that
The environment and the health of the surrounding population go hand in hand. The Environmental Protection Agency takes on this ever so important mission of protecting them both. The mission statement of the EPA states, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Small Business Programs is to support the protection of human health and the environment by advocating and advancing the business, regulatory, and environmental compliance concerns of small and socio-economically disadvantaged businesses, and minority academic institutions (US Enviromental Protection Agency, 2010).” The impact of its mission can be defined clearly as it examines the impact of contamination in the air, the water, and the land on human health.
Chapter 6, “The Burden of History: Expectations Past and Imperfect” from Kirsch’s book, The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History, focuses on the problem of automobiles in the modern day. Kirsch states that internal combustion engines release greenhouse gasses, which harm the environment. Each individual contributes to air pollution
Environmental concerns have been raised from time to time because of the dependency on the gasoline-fueled engine as the chief auto powertrain technology. This has resulted in exposing many automobile users to unpredictable prices of fuel. These issues were, however, the reason for
the growing rate of technological advances within the recent centuries, a stable source of energy
With billions of dollars invested and hundreds of thousands of Americans employed (Department of Commerce, n.d.), the automobile industry has a vast influence in the United States. Since the time Henry Ford developed the assembly line production (Statista, n.d.) the industry has grown into a global market with no signs of slowing down. Top car companies are constantly searching for new innovations to set them apart from their competitors. Among those companies is Volkswagen (VW). A company which strides in emissions and fuel efficiency turned, not only to be false, but caused a severe amount of damage (Ewing, 2016).
Transportation is the number one thing we consumers do that harms the environment. Transportation causes the highest amount of environmental damage overall - nearly half of the toxic air pollution and more than a quarter of the greenhouse gases traceable to household consumption. Over time, however, sales of trucks, vans and SUV's went from 16% market share to over 50%. One big auto manufacturer even shelved their work of the last three years, spent updating their most popular selling economy car, so they could spend the money getting SUVs to market faster.
According to statistical data “Almost all (95%) of the world's transportation energy comes from petroleum-based fuels, largely gasoline and diesel.” (United States Environmental Protection Agency, n.d.).
The Industrial Revolution sparked a need for large sources of energy. Human and animal labor could not provide the power necessary to power industrial machinery, railroads, and ships. The steam engine and later the internal combustion engine provided the bulk of the energy required by the industrial age. Today most nations are still heavily reliant on energy that comes from combustion. Usually coal, petrolium, and natural gas are used. Some hydroelectric, wind power, and nuclear fission sources are used, but in the US they accounted for less than 20% of the total energy consumption in 1997 (1). Many experts are worried that natural resources such as coal and petrolium are being depleted faster than they are being replenished, which could
later, oil now accounts for about 95 percent of the global transportation sector fuel and 13
The New York Times article mentioned, that about 19 million barrels of oil are consumed by the transportation industry daily within
The second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States is related to transportation, the burning of oil to produce energy in a combustion motor. The combustion process inside of engines is what produces the carbon matter that is emitted into the air through the exhaust system on gas-powered vehicles. Gas-powered transportation is accountable for 24 percent of the global carbon emissions; this should not come as much of a surprise given the amount of urban sprawl that is being seen in the United States and across the globe. In the past decade, the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States government, and major car manufacturers have been working in conjunction to find ways to provide a “greener” form of transportation (EPA, 2011). This has included testing the use of hydropower, ethanol, natural gas, biodiesel, and electricity as a means of powering vehicles, which has led to the introduction of hybrid vehicles. Hybrid vehicles run on electricity and gasoline, the byproduct of oil that is generally used in the engine combustion process of vehicles (U.S. Department of
“1 gallon of gas =24 pounds of global warming emissions” (UCSUSA). Many of the people in our world today don’t understand just how much The Automobile affects us, our lives, and the world we live in. Undoubtedly, the invention of the car has changed our perspective on the different technology created over the past years. However, cars are some of the leading factors towards one of the largest ongoing problems occurring in our world today. That problem goes by the name of global warming. “Since 1990, Transportation has been one of the fastest growing sources of U.S. GHG” (U.S.D.T), otherwise known as Greenhouse gasses. In which most of us know; global warming affects our health, environment, weather, and ultimately our lives. It is a
Introduction Automobile usage has increased in America and elsewhere in the world. In a research done by Sutherland, J., et al. (2004) “The US has a contributed to 200 million passengers in cars and light truck over the past few years. Further in 1990, studies showed that US cars increased six times faster than human population. The leaders in the automotive industry must adopt some key elements to ensure success in this fast-moving environment. They must invest in knowing their markets, building brands, adapting product strategies and taking long-term view on their goals and objectives. This paper outlines some of the key factors which should be considered. Environmental factors automotive designers and engineers have always said the main threats in the American Automotive industry are the environmental factors such as fuel economy and the clean air regulations. Automotive Emission posed different problems than manufacturing discharges such as coal smoke. Increased fossil-fuel emission has resulted from the million car increase. Irritation smog, which is comprised of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur oxide and other various chemical mixtures are cited in major cities such as Los Angeles. These auto emissions are also said to cause headaches, visual pollutions, contribute to lung cancers and other respiratory disease. In the end, the engineers have designed cars that are better environmental performers, cost effective and fuel efficient to reduce the environmental