What are facts about cars and and the environment?

Answer 1

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions:

Although the car is getting better in terms of fuel efficiency, consumption and emissions, there is still a long way to go. The main concern is that of CO2 emissions. Currently Toyota lead the market for low emission cars. On average a standard five door hatchback will produce 162 g/km of CO2, with the new cars such as the Prius some models have got this down to 80 g/km (e.g the Honda Insight - no longer made). Nobody is denying the obvious advantages to driving cars, however in an age where we have mass transport and integrated public service systems the need for individual personal transport should be decreasing.(Edit: These figures change year to year and Toyota is not now the lowest overall.)

Carbon Dioxide produced in the building and disposal:

Another factor is the damage caused by manufacture, operation and disposal of each vehicle. This is estimated at around 20-25% of the damage caused by burning the fuel in each vehicle. Note that electric cars are sometimes said to be zero CO2 polluters, but this ignores the manufacturing and disposal and other operating factors, and the CO2 produced in electricity generating stations. Other operating factors include fuel refining distribution for cars using petrol or diesel. Cars driven by (Edit: exotic and experimental power plants like) solar panels may get closer to zero CO2, but the manufacturing of the panels is an additional concern.

CO2 emission/energy/and other pollutants Although CO2 is thought to be the major contributor to greenhouse gases emitted by vehicles, there is additionally concern about energy efficiency and other pollutants. There is a loose, but not exact, correlation between CO2 emission and energy/fuel efficiency. Regarding other pollutants which damage the environment, most cars produced and used in developed countries are now satisfactory regarding particulate emission, and the emission of other pollutants, such as lead compounds. This is not true globally however, and there can be serious environmental contamination due to these pollutants in some developing countries.(Edit: India, China and Brazil each produce more particulate emissions from cars than the US.)

Role of the US:

The US is the world leader for numbers of cars in a country and all of the CO2 being expelled by those cars is probably contributing to the global warming effects some scientists have theorized. Currently it is believed by certain political groups that reversing what we have done is impossible, but operations like carbon sequestration (look up at wikipedia) could stand to help things.

Carbon offsetting Carbon offsetting is an arguably controversial means for permitting the use of fossil fuel burning machines. For example, by planting trees, or paying for forests to not be cut down, the global effect on CO2 emission can be minimized. However, there is no scientific basis for that.

See the links:
cars affect the environment in mant way by letting out dangerous gases which affect the enviromennt which increases global warming which is not only affecting the planet but our future genrations it is also one of the main causes of poulltion leading to ice caps melting more dangerous weather and a bad future

Answer 2

they let out co2 (1 carbon atom and 2 oxygen atoms)