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Hope for Humanity?
Car companies are going green
Faced with rising gas prices and stringent CO2 emission standards, auto manufacturers are "going green" by introducing new car models with reduced or zero carbon footprint. There are many different technologies emerging in various stages of development. Some of the new technologies are conceptual and will never make it beyond trade shows. Some are currently in the demo or trial phase but still several years away from being production-ready. Other green car technologies are a reality and already being shipped to various places in the world. In some cases to countries with lower safety standards. This article provides an overview of the major initiatives and issues.
Many manufacturers are pursuing an evolutionary green car approach. Incremental improvements to fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions generally include vehicle weight reduction, improved aerodynamics and tweaks to the engine design. Two popular green cars that fall into the evolutionary category are the Hybrid and Smart Car. The Hybrid retains the fossil fuel-based internal combustion engine but also includes an electrical power source. The electric motor provides highly efficient torque at low RPMs when the gas engine is inefficient providing much better fuel efficiency when driving in the city. The Smart Car provides a substantial reduction in car volume, making the vehicle much lighter. Both the Hybrid and Smart Car are described further below. (Click on the images.)
Some car manufacturers are being more aggressive by researching technologies not directly linked to fossil fuel such as hydrogen and compressed air. These energy sources promise significantly reduced or zero carbon emissions. But it should be recognized that electricity is still required for these solutions. The generation of electricity still requires fossil fuel or nuclear power plants. Therefore the problems are shifted from the automobile to a power generator. The theory being that it is easier to control emissions at a central power generator than at the car. In most cases these (revolutionary) approaches require a new energy infrastructure, making it much less practical for mass production in the near and mid-term. Two revolutionary technologies are the hydrogen fuel cell and compressed air engine. (Click on the images to learn more.)
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Even though there is significant progress with green car technology we still have not answered the question “Is there hope for humanity?” Some experts indicate that the earth’s population will need to cut greenhouse gases by 50% from 2005 levels by 2050 or suffer dire consequences. This while the world economies and population increase at a rate in excess of 3% per year. Introduction of green cars WILL NOT solve the climate change problem. Car emissions play a small (but significant) part in the overall problem. Every individual, business and government is responsible for self-examinatiom and elimination of all our carbon emissions.
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Copyright 2008