In the past years, people have been using different means of transport. Initially the means of transport was walking. This was very tedious as people movement was limited to their physical fitness and strength. Animals were next then used for transport. The mostly used animals were donkeys and horses.
The animal assisted in transporting goods from one location to the other. All these traditional methods were relatively slow. They had a major advantage in that they did not pose any problem to environmental degradation. In the case of water transport, small manual boats were used.
Due to increased people mobility and transport of goods, there have been continuous needs to improve the transport and communication sectors. This has been accelerated in the continuous advancements in the technological department. The main common means of transport currently in use are air, marine, rail as well as road transport. These means have many advantages such as improved speed, increased luggage carrying capacity as well as improved communication. On the other hand they have some demerits.
These demerits include increased natural resources exploitation and environmental pollution. This has adversely affected our environment and has led to some aspects such as global warming. This paper tries to seek whether car efficiency should be improved with respect to the environmental effects associated with them.
Car transport forms one of the main means of transport on land. It is also easily available and accessible all around the globe. Due to it being deep rooted and having negative effects to the environment, means of minimizing negative environmental effects are constantly under review. The environment is one of the most beneficial assets available to all mankind. It is useful in all aspects of life from economic to social. This thus means that we should protect our environment.
In the previous years, some strategies have been put in place for environmental benefits. They included controlling the public sector which promotes it. This helped reducing the overall pollution by minimizing the use of personal cars.
Although this was successful, it had limitations in that the efficiency of the vehicles was not improved. Due to increased population and thus the need for more transport facilities, these policies were ineffective in the long run. Thus this brought the need for more research and improvement in the motor vehicle industry as well as policy.
Technological evolvement has really led to continuous advancements in the motor industry. This had led to improved efficiency. The main aspect of efficiency considered is fuel consumption. The more efficient fuel is consumed implies that more distance is covered with same quantity of fuel and less amount of exhaust gasses released to the atmosphere.
This is one of the main aspects of environmental conservation in the motor vehicle industry. Imposing of heavy taxation on old vehicles instead of on fuels could assist very much. It would promote the buying of new vehicles which are more efficient (Easton, 2008). Furthermore they would act as motivations to the car manufacturers to constinously improve their products as a result of increased profit margins.
There are many current technologies available for environmental conservation in the motor industry. If all of them were implemented then they would reduce the environmental impact by a significant margin. Use of alternative fuel technology would reduce dependence on one source of energy and thus reduce its exploitation (Spoolman & Miller, 2008).
The alternative energy sources are natural gas and bio-diesel among others. They would also minimize the emissions to the environment as they cause less pollution to the environment. There have been problems in the continuous growth of technology. This is attributed to some manufacturers being conservative due to financial difficulties and the prevalence of risks.
Thus to promote continuous research and development, sponsorship is necessary. The sponsorship may be from the government or other well established institutions. Tax credit may be used to motivate the manufacturers to undergo the heavy investments. Implementation of these policies and others would be of great help in the growth of motor industry technology which would in the long run give great economic returns due to improved efficiency.
There have been many obstacles in changing to the use of new fuel sources. This is mainly due to high costs of implementation. The persistent need for specific vehicles by customers has also acted as a hindrance. The available market forces have not succeeded in winning favor for customers to purchase the most improved vehicles available in the market. These are some of the reasons for continuous environmental degradation from the motor vehicle industry (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2008).
There is also the problem of customers buying old technology vehicles instead of the latest cars with advanced technology especially in regard to fuel consumption. This has been facilitated by the high cost of buying the latest technology car and misinformation. These new cars are fuel efficient and thus are less expensive in the long run. This has affected both the environment and the motor vehicle industry as the sale of these cars is limited to few individuals.
Motor vehicle industry is one the growing employer in the country. This is due to the tremendous increase in the number of vehicles. Cars require people to operate them either as drive and service men. This forms long chains of interdependence. This has been one of the hindrances of any alteration in the motor vehicle industry. As a result there are successive measures implemented to approach the problem as changes would cause job losses. This would adversely affect the domestic industry as well as a country’s economy as a whole.
Fuel efficiency is of great concern not only in the motor vehicle industry but also in all other aspect such as production. It is essential in maximizing returns by reducing the cost of production. The efficiency is calculated from the input and the output ratios.
The more a car is efficient in fuel consumption, the longer distance it travels using the same amount of fuel. This means that most of the fuel components are used in running the engine and thus the by products are few. This has benefits to both the economy as well as the environment (Ragani, 2008).
Our environment is highly dependent on all aspects of economy. In the case of motor vehicle industry, the efficiency of the fuel consumption is of great concern. The main by products of cars are “Sulpher dioxide, Nitrogen Oxides, unburnt and partially burnt hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, particulates (smoke and soot) and carbon dioxide” (Moeller, 2002, p. 2).
These byproducts are harmful and when combined with other components available in the atmosphere they equally become destructive. Continuous deposition of these elements into the atmosphere affects the Ozone layer.
This layer is useful in preventing the harmful electromagnetic radiation from reaching the earth’s surface. Depletion of this layer adversely affects our environment and thus the earth’s vegetation as well as other economic activities is adversely affected. This is one of the activities that have resulted to the current topic for debate on Global warming.
There are specific standards of emission that are set to regulate emission. In the current technology it is possible to produce new vehicles that meet the standards as well as modifying the current ones. These harmful emissions can have economic benefits when used in specific ways. For example, when carbon dioxide is well harnessed instead of being released the atmosphere; it can be used in the carbon market which is growing very fast.
Cars with low Sulpher emissions, Electric and solar cars should be produced in mass and sold so as to curb the problem. The policies in place usually find various hindrances. These hindrances are technological, and issues touching on the manufacturers and customers. The manufacturers may fail to use up to date technology in fear of making losses from decreased sales due to the current market forces (Moeller, 2002).
Vehicle emissions are harmful to human health. They interfere with the normal body operations which may lead to malfunctioning of the body. Thus, vehicle emissions are causes of certain diseases and can even cause through suffocation as a result of long exposure to high intensity emission. This affects the human labour which plays a significant role in the economic development of a country or region.
There are specific policies that are used to control emission in different regions around the world. These policies are mainly based on environmental and health factors. They have made a significant improvement in air pollution control. The government policies on avoiding the usage of old vehicles which do not meet the specific standards set are also very useful.
So as to effectively apply these policies, they should be implemented by coordination between different state organs and countries. Governments should not overlook the economic returns from the motor vehicle industries without considering the long term environmental effects (Button & Hensher, 2003). Thus, there should be incentives for continuous development of the industry taking into consideration the economic, health and environmental effects.
In conclusion, there have been some improvements in efficiency in the motor vehicle industry. They have been due to consistent need to avoid the shortcomings affecting the environment as a whole. Although there have been good returns in the adoption of new technologies, there are many challenges that face future developments.
These challenges arise from manufacturers, consumers and the current policies in place among others. In the case of manufactures, they should be given motivation as well some financial support in case of need so that they are be able to carry out more research in conjunction with academic institutions.
This would increase their productivity as well as lay a platform for future development. Efficient policies should be put in place to maintain ethics in this field and proper information and knowledge availed to the consumers to help them make the correct choice when buying cars. Furthermore, because more improvements in efficiency are necessary, the impacts that are to be gained in this implementation are worth.
References
Button, K. J. & Hensher, D. A. (2003). Handbook of transport and the environment. Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald Group.
Cunningham, W. P. & Cunningham, M. A. (2008). Principles of environmental science: Inquiry and applications (Custom 5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Easton, T. (2008). Taking sides: Clashing views on controversial environmental issues. (Custom 13th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Moeller, S. T. (2002). Energy efficiency: issues and trends. New York, NY: Nova Publishers.
Ragani, R. C. (2008). International Seminar on Nuclear War and Planetary Emergencies: 38th session. New York, NY: Nova Publishers.
Spoolman, S. & Miller, G. T. (2008). Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections, and Solutions. Stamford, United Kingdom: Cengage Learning.