Analyzing the Impact of Vehicle Use on Climate Change by Humans

This essay examines the impact of human activities, specifically vehicle use, on climate change. It highlights how the combustion of fossil fuels in vehicles releases greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming. The essay presents data showing transportation as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and its increasing trend. It concludes by recommending measures to reduce the impact of vehicle use, such as utilizing public transport, adopting green vehicles (hybrid and electric), and using low-carbon fuels. The analysis also touches upon the importance of legislation and policies regarding car manufacturing to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. This resource is available on Desklib, a platform offering a range of study tools and solved assignments for students.

HUMAN IMPACT ON
CLIMATE CHANGE
Student Name

2
INTRODUCTION
• Many of the factors that contribute to climate change are man-made.
Despite the existence of natural environmental pollutants, such as
volcanic eruptions, human activity over the last two centuries have
significantly accelerated climate change (Oba, 2014).
• The human activities contributing to climate change can all be traced
back to industrialization. The beginning of the acceleration in climate
change can similarly be traced back to start of industrial revolution
(Crafts, 2011).

3
INTRODUCTION
• A lot of the activities we carry out on a daily basis as well as the
products we use are mostly tied to industrialization. This therefore
means that these activities and products may be contributors of
climate change. This paper aims at identifying and analyzing daily
human activities that contribute to climate change.

4
USE OF VEHICLES
• This paper will focus on the use of vehicles as a daily human activity
that contribute to climate change. Vehicles are essential for daily
transportation in the world today.
• This has made vehicles more of necessities and less of luxuries. The
rapid expansion of cities has resulted in the increase in the use of
vehicles, this is since it has become impossible to go about on foot.

5
USE OF VEHICLES
• Daily human live involves movement from place to place,
transportation therefore forms part of everyday human live. Whether
it is going to school, home, work or taking a trip. The most common
mode of transport is the use of road transport by vehicles.

6
IMPACT OF VEHICLE USE ON
CLIMATE CHANGE
• Vehicles are fueled by products of fossil fuels. These products, such as
diesel and gasoline, combust to produce the energy that powers vehicles.
• The combustion process of fossil fuels generally releases greenhouse
gases such as Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Oxides, Hydrocarbons and
Carbon Dioxide (Anthoff, Tol, & Yohe, 2009).
• Therefore, the combustion of the fuel products of fossil fuels to generate
energy to power the vehicles results in the release of greenhouse gases
into the atmosphere (Jacobson, 2009). The greenhouse gases, apart from
causing air pollution, are also main contributors to global warming.

7
DATA
• The graph on the side shows
that transportation leads in the
levels of greenhouse gas
emissions in the United States of
America for the year 2016.
• Sources: (United States
Environmental Protection
Agency, 2018)

8
DATA
• The graph on the side show that
the greenhouse gas emissions
from transportation have been
on a general rising trend form
1990 to 2016.
• Sources: (United States
Environmental Protection
Agency, 2018)

9
CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
• We conclude that the use of vehicles contributes to the release of
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This by extension implies that
the use of vehicles contributes to climate change.
• In order to reduce the contribution of the use of vehicles to climate
change we can take the following measures; using public transport in
order to reduce the number of cars on the road, using green vehicles
(hybrid and electric vehicles) and using low-carbon fuels.

10
CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Consider the case of a group of 60 individuals each owning and using
their vehicles for everyday transportation. Suppose these individuals
instead decide to use a public transport vehicle with a capacity of
carrying 60 passengers at a go.
• This would reduce the emission of greenhouse gases since where 60
different vehicles would have been releasing greenhouse gases
previously, the use of public transport results in only one vehicle
releasing greenhouse gases.

11
CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Green vehicles refer to vehicles that have been designed in such a
way that the emission of greenhouse gases is maintained at a
minimum possible level (Anthoff, Tol, & Yohe, 2009). These vehicles
are generally electric cars or cars that have the aspect of electric cars
incorporated.
• Electric vehicles are powered using electricity and therefore they have
zero emission levels of greenhouse gases. Hybrid cars are vehicles
that can be powered by both fuels and electricity simultaneously, this
reduces the emission of greenhouse gases by half.

12
CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Low carbon fuels are fuels that upon combustion releases lower
amounts of greenhouse gases compared to the fuels that are
petroleum based (Oba, 2014). By using these fuels to power vehicles,
the amounts of greenhouse gases released by vehicles can be
significantly reduced.
• Increased production of low carbon fuels will increase their
availability for the population as well as making them affordable. The
eventual replacement of petroleum based fuels with low carbon fuels
will be crucial in reducing the emission levels of greenhouse gases.