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Privately Owned Gasoline Powered Vehicles Should Be Limited

Privately Owned Gasoline Powered Vehicles Should Be Limited

February 25, 1995
Social Studies 10H


The automobile has become a very important part of today's society. It
is a necessity to own or to have access to a car in order to keep up with all of
the competition of the business world, and also one's social demands. Most
people would not be able to travel around a country or the world without this
incredible machine, for it provides freedom and mobility, even for people who do
not own a car. Unfortunately, the car has a very destructive nature.
Automobiles make a major contribution to air and noise pollution, depletion of
fossil fuels, and to the abnormalities in children and adults due to lead
poisoning. In order to stop this devastation, the use of gas powered
automobiles must be limited by replacing them with alternative modes of
transportation, or by finding a way to ease them out of utilization.
There are many reasons why the number of privately owned gasoline
powered cars on the road should be limited. First of all, and most importantly,
automobiles are harmful to our environment. Automobiles run on gasoline, which
is a mixture derived from petroleum. Gasoline contains hundreds of different
hydrocarbons, or compounds containing the chemical elements carbon and
hydrogen(Gasoline). When the gas is burned in the engine of the car, several
byproducts result. These exhausts include hydrocarbons and oxides of three
elements: Carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur(Emissions). Tiny amounts of poisonous
trace elements such as lead, cadmium, and nickel also are present. Everything
contained in the exhaust affects the environment intensely. Auto engine exhaust
contributes about 50% of today's atmospheric pollution, and in highly populated
and industrialized cities, air pollution consists of up to 80% car exhaust.
Because of all of the gasoline powered cars on the road, the earth's
outermost protective shell, the ozone layer, is being destroyed. The ozone
layer...