Everyday people hear about different ways in which they can better the environment. Whether it is recycling, taking public transportation, attempting not to litter, turning off lights or unplugging appliances when they are not in use, Americans have many options in which they can attempt to reduce the effects of global warming. Even though effective, those little things hardly add up when looking at the big picture. The one way to ensure that global warming is being reduced is by making a drastic change in something most people use everyday: transportation. Whether it be by cars or through any other major form of transportation, changing to alternative fuels is the most effective way to reduce global warming because carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels are the main root of climate change.
In order to understand why the CO2 emissions need to be reduced, first, it must be recognized how CO2 emissions are affecting the planet. According to “The Science of Climate Change,” the biosphere naturally emits approximately 800 billion tons of CO2 a year (Hansen 200). But the earth absorbs these gases, which is why the global climate has been relatively stable over the past 10,000 years because scientists explained, “the amount of CO2 generated by natural processes is about equal to the amounts absorbed and sequestered by natural processes” (Hansen 200). This is suggesting that CO2 emissions are natural parts of the environment and therefore cannot be completely stopped, but the earth has its own way of absorbing these gases. However, Hansen claims “human activity since the Industrial Revolution, and primarily in the form of burning fossil fuels, is now generating an additional 24 billion tons of CO2 each year” (201). The natural processes on land or in the ocean cannot absorb the additional 24 billion tons of CO2 produced by humans each year (Hansen 201). Before the Industrial Revolution, the gases were being absorbed and therefore were not endangering the earth; now that humans have a much bigger reliance on fossil fuels, the amount of CO2 created is much bigger than the amount the earth can naturally process. This causes a problem, because when the earth is unable to absorb the CO2, it leads to what we know now as global warming.
However, there are ways we can reduce CO2 emissions- the most important one is making the switch to alternative fuels. By using alternative fuels, such as hydrogen, drivers would be creating an easy solution to a large problem. According to an article in BioCycle, “to dramatically reduce global warming emissions, there needs to be improvement on vehicle fuel efficiency, miles traveled, and shifts to lower carbon fuels” (12). This is what needs to be done in the sense of making the switch to alternative fuels, such as hydrogen.
Certain car manufacturers have already done this by creating Hybrid cars, which use less gasoline and receive higher miles per gallon, which decreases driver’s use of fossil fuel. That fossil fuel is also one of the main causes of global warming, so therefore Hybrid manufacturers and drivers are doing what is currently possible to help save the environment. As a citizen of the United States, I believe that I have the responsibility to take care of the environment. Therefore, I drive a Hybrid car; Hybrids receive much better gas mileage, tax reductions, and most importantly, are less harmful to the environment. I am a strong believer in balancing out the environment, and I try to do that by not only driving a Hybrid, but by informing my friends and family of the benefits of Hybrids, so that one day they may feel compelled to drive one as well.
Over the past years, Hybrid cars have been increasing in their popularity around the United States and around the world. Car manufacturers such as Toyota and Honda have been successful in their production and marketing their Hybrid models, which has lead to an increase in their models being bought. According to authors Frank and Romm of “Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction,” the most important quality about Hybrids is that “their more efficient use of gasoline results in lower emissions of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas.” Since people who drive Hybrids are consciously making an effort to decrease emissions of CO2, they are also helping in the process of reducing the effects of global warming. Another plus about Hybrids is that the average U.S. car will travel around 23 miles on one gallon of gas, while a Hybrid car will travel double that amount (Frank). This states that Hybrid cars travel noticeably farther on one tank of gas, compared to the average car. So even though using alternative fuels is very important and essential to the growth of this economy, Hybrid cars are doing their part in reducing the use of our current main source of fuel- gasoline. But there is still much more that can be done in terms of finding other ways to keep the environment clean and in the areas of using alternative fuels to do so; that is where hydrogen comes in to play.
In an article called “Hydrogen Cars: Fad or the Future?” author Louis Schlapbach goes into detail about why hydrogen acts as a good transport fuel. Schlapbach reports that “hydrogen is carbon-free, non-toxic, and its thermal or electrochemical combustion with oxygen yields nothing but energy and water… Another advantage is that the main source of hydrogen is water, which is essentially an unlimited source” (809). This form of alternative fuel is easily accessible because as pointed out by Schlapbach, hydrogen is made of water, which is unlimited. Since hydrogen is carbon free, using it as an alternative fueling for vehicles would greatly reduce the CO2 emissions that are put into the air by the vehicles that are most commonly driven today.
The qualities that hydrogen possesses are very unique and are not harmful to the environment. However, some have suggested many problems that come across when using hydrogen as a fuel source. “The Hydrogen Car Fights Back” is an article in which the author Michael Copeland discusses some of these problems. The first thing Copeland points out is that producing hydrogen is not a very clean process, therefore scientists have to figure out a way of extracting it that will not offset the environmental benefits of the car itself. Even though there are some greenhouse gases produced while extracting hydrogen, there are less amounts of CO2 being produced when creating the hydrogen than when actually driving a car that uses fossil fuels to run. There is no full-proof way to completely eliminate greenhouse gases from our world, but being able to reduce the amount actually emitted is a step in the right direction.
According to Copeland, another problem with using hydrogen as a main transport fuel is that making the switch would be very costly and because of the recent economic depression, the United States can’t afford to make the switch. Copeland says “none of this will be cheap: A study commissioned by the National Academy of Science concluded that the U.S. would need to spend $3 billion to $4 billion a year for 15 years to subsidize the cost of the cars and get a national infrastructure in place to make the transition to hydrogen.” Even though switching would cost money, is it really necessary to put a price on what it would cost to save the environment? Mostly everything in today’s society is expensive and with the recent economic slump, some may say that the U.S. cannot afford to switch to hydrogen. But it is also important to not only focus on the costs, but also remember how hydrogen would be beneficial to the earth as a transportation fuel. It is part of the United States’ job as a whole to protect its citizens, but also to protect the area they live on, because the cleaner the earth is, the better the living conditions will be for the people living on it.
There are many other aspects of hydrogen that should be taken into consideration as well. Hydrogen does not only need to be used for small vehicles; it can be used for larger forms of transportation. In fact, in the article “Hydrogen as a Transportation Fuel,” authors Alex Farrell and David Keith point out:
Vehicles for which size and speed are less important constraints thus will be more easily adapted to hydrogen. The extra expense of hydrogen technologies will be less important in vehicles that are used more intensively and have longer lifetimes. And learning-by-doing will be maximized where the vehicles are manufactured in small number of near-custom designs, not through mass production. (Farrell 43)
Farrell and Keith are claiming that in order to make hydrogen a more common source of fuel, first hydrogen must be used in larger vehicles instead of small vehicles to observe hydrogen as a transportation fuel. This is important because even though small vehicles are used daily and frequently, so are major forms of transportation such as trains and buses. By switching to alternative fuels in these larger vehicles, it might have already paved a path in the areas of being more comfortable with using hydrogen as a transportation fuel. Whether hydrogen is used as a fuel for small vehicles or for larger vehicles, either way hydrogen is being recognized as an efficient source of transportation fuel.
If the United States chooses to take a different route instead of focusing on alternative fueling to save our environment, there is no denying the fact that the United States needs to take some form of action. According to a presentation put on by The Beehive Collective’s called “The True Cost of Coal,” the United States Department of Defense’s carbon footprint (total set of greenhouse gases produced by an organization, object or person) is bigger than most third world countries. This means that the United States Department of Defense alone is producing and emitting more CO2 than many third world countries; imagine what the whole United States’ carbon footprint would be. In the article “Global Warming: The Hard Road Ahead,” authors Robert Hahn and Peter Passell make a point by saying “the world’s largest, richest economy, which is also the world’s second-largest carbon emitter, can’t afford to stay aloof from efforts to limit climate change.” It is essential that the United States make the change to alternative fuel in order to reduce the effects of global warming, since we are arguably the most technologically advanced and richest country. Because of these qualities, it only makes sense that the United States do everything in their power to make the world environmentally cleaner, therefore by switching to alternative fuels, it would be doing this.
There have been many developments in the areas of making this earth cleaner and to stopping global warming; however there is still a long way to go. Hybrid cars have made their impact on our nation and around the world, but they do not act as a complete end to the CO2 emissions that are being pumped into our atmosphere. Using hydrogen is one of the ways to dramatically continue decreasing CO2 emissions, and it proves that the benefits much outweigh the costs. The United States needs to take action and be proactive; climate change will not end on its own, we all need to take a part in helping our environment, whether it is by driving Hybrid cars, or by supporting the idea of using hydrogen as a main source of alternative fuel.
Works Cited
Copeland, Michael. “The Hydrogen Car Fights Back.” Fortune 160.8 (2009): n. pag. Web. 10 Oct. 2010.
Farrell, Alex and Keith, David. “Hydrogen as a Transportation Fuel.” Environment 43.3 (2001): 43-44. Web. 10 Oct. 2010.
Frank, Andrew, and Romm, Joseph. “Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction.” Scientific American 294.4 (2006): n. pag. Web. 6 Oct. 2010.
Hahn, Robert and Passel, Peter. “Global Warming: The Hard Road Ahead.” Issues in Science & Technology. 25.3 (2009): 31-32. Web. 20 November 2010.
Hansen, James. “The Science of Climate Change Global Warming Causes and Trends.” International Database 3.7 (2005): 198-223. Web. 20 November 2010.
Schlapbach, Louis. “Technology: Hydrogen Fuelled Vehicles.” Nature 460.7537 (2009): 809-811. Web. 6 Oct. 2010.
The Beehive Collective. The True Cost of Coal. Ohio University. Baker Center, Athens, OH. 15 November 2010. Guest Lecture.
“Low-Carbon Biofuels Can Significantly Reduce Global Warming.” BioCycle 49.5 (2008): 12-12. Web. 20 November 2010.
