Efficient Auto Technology

1964 Words8 Pages
In the good old days of the horse and buggy humans didn’t have to worry about things like air pollution. It’s not that there wasn’t pollution, but it just wasn’t a concern at the time. Nowadays, in times with all sorts of modern technologies and advancements, a time when horse and buggy methane emissions have been traded in for motorized vehicles and emissions of carbon monoxide, humans need to take notice of air pollution and its cascading effects on the environment. This poses the question to auto makers, politicians, and consumers alike, should cars be more efficient? Technology for a less invasive co-existence is available, therefore, cars should be more efficient because efficiency will help to reduce emissions that contribute to greenhouse gases and global warming, will help to conserve fossil fuels, and will hopefully make it possible to leave less of a carbon footprint on our Earth. Transportation has become a necessary evil in our society. With the aid of technological advancements, the effects of such transportation don’t necessarily have to be quite so “evil”. It is true that over the last hundred years motorized vehicles have steadily become more efficient. Sheer numbers of vehicles though have significantly contributed to increased and detrimental levels of air pollution. In the days prior to Ford’s invention of the motorized automobile, horse and buggy was the everyday method of private transportation. Horse and buggies created air pollution (from the horse’s flatulence and waste and from the excess dust kicked up from the buggy on unpaved roads). “Aside from the disagreeable aesthetic effect created by horse manure, [and much like the carbon monoxide pollution of automobiles,] its chief impact upon public health seemed to come from wind-blown manure particles that irritated respiratory organs…” (Tarr, 1971, ¶21). Motorized vehicles traded in
Open Document