Automobile and the Environment
For my report, I read the book The Automobile and The Environment by Maxine Rock. ... With steady increases in automobile traffic, it is clear that over the last 20 years, the automobile has had many negative impacts on human health and the environment. ... The main pollutants from automobile exhausts, for conventional gasoline and diesel engines are carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, suspended particulates and lead. ... Automobile emissions are directly responsible for close to 10% of man made carbon dioxide emissions. ... The heat of the combustion reaction in an automobile engine causes some of the nitrogen in air to react with oxygen and form nitrogen oxides. ... Exposure to low levels of lead in the environment can cause symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, and clumsiness especially in children. ... The automobile also has other impacts on the environment that are not a result of emissions. Manufacturing an automobile requires water which comes in clean and goes out polluted. ... In North America, the automobile is one of the largest users of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).