Hybrid Vehicles and Earth's Changing Climate

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Recommended: Effects of global warming on the planet

Motorized Vehicles are one of the most important technologies within our modern world. We use cars for many reasons, some are to run errands, go to a friend’s house, or even on a family vacation. Transportation plays a huge role in not only America, but also most of the world. Cars offer fast and reliable hauling from place to place. Technology has led us to cars that emit gasses that harm the environment but have also pushed us to scientifically advance our system into being more energy efficient. Hybrid cars are the alternative solution to solving our problem of global warming. Hybrid cars help our environment a great deal because they are fuel efficient, reduce pollution, and help preserve our oil and end foreign oil dependency. With prices of gasoline rising to an ultimate high in the past 4 years, hybrid cars have boomed across the market within all brands of car dealerships in America. Statistics show that the average price of gasoline in California today is at $2.94 per gallon of gasoline with an increase of $0.82 from last year (EAI Petroleum). While gas prices rise more and more every year, a hybrid car has come to be the best solution. Coming out to 51 mpg/city and 49 mpg/highway, the new Toyota Prius has been a big hit with consumers all over America. The Prius is the most popular car that is focused on its fuel efficiency. Because the average mile per gallon in America is 22, the Prius is untouchable in the race to save money on gas. Therefore, by buying a hybrid car, the average American would save $1,073 annually. To some people this is not a big deal, but it cuts the amount of a regular car completely in half. Not only does the hybrid present greater fuel efficiency and less money, it reduces the amount of ga... ... middle of paper ... ...dies have shown that the carbon dioxide concentration has risen from 320 PPM to 400 PPM and is still on the rise. The proof that pollution is causing global warming comes from the evidence of Al Gores’s research, “the average temperatures in the Arctic region are rising twice as fast as they are elsewhere in the world. Arctic ice is getting thinner, melting and rupturing. For example, the largest single block of ice in the Arctic, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, has been around for 3,000 years before it started cracking in 2000. Within two years it had split all the way through and is now breaking into pieces. The polar ice cap as a whole is shrinking. Images from NASA satellites show that the area of permanent ice cover is contracting at a rate of 9 percent each decade. If this trend continues, summers in the Arctic could become ice-free by the end of the century”(Gore).

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