Are you concerned about cars being the root of all our global warming issues?

Question

Why not raise the driving age to 18? It would decrease carbon monoxide emissions, reduce vehicle accidents by FOLDS not percents, and keep minors at home where they belong. What are your ideas on this?

Answer 1

i think you need to get a life

Answer 2

I'm not concerned about it because I don't believe in global warming at all sorry.

Answer 3

cars are bad ,but the roads are worse ,and worse than that is agriculture

Global warming is a very complex collection of many effects

this text only covers some aspects of global warming ,mainly agriculture i.e.effects of deforestation and subsequent man made desertification

water and air polution such as caused by

industrial contamination ,the contaminating effects of the cities(the internal combustion engine) ,are other stories,

and all of these are also man made ,such as the high industrial chimneys pumping contamination into the clouds and the burning of tires,some of this polution has been found in the ice in the polar regions

there are natural cycles in the planets life

but a lot is influenced by mans existance ,and this is increasing with overpopulation,putting strains on Natural resources and increasing contaminations as well as destructions of essential componants the ensure living conditions for all life forms

climate change is caused in great parts by desertification ,and most desertification is caused by man

the thinner ozone layer helps to speed this up.and this is caused mainly by air polution ,also as a result of mans actions

DEFORESTATION

in the past

the Building of the Spanish Armada deforrested Spain

the Phoenician trading fleet turned Lebanon in a dessert

Ganges Khan put everything to the sword and torch, then filled the wells with sand,

the sun finished of the job and whole countries turned to wastelands.

Today ,

Slash and burn destroys the protective vegetation (which helps to form the soil ),

leaving it open to the Sun ,and then ,wind and, water erosion.

The Plough turns the soil ,killing micro-biotic life (essential to soil building) and accelerates the drying out .

Pressures of the :vehicles, cattle and rain impact brings the salt to the surface.

Mono cultures ,aided by chemicals Exhaust and pollutes the soil .

Adding to this the effects of overgrazing has resulted in large scale desertification.

and there is less and less water (because of deforestation),to irrigate this production ,Farmers

are overpumping deep carbon aquifiers

and plowing more and more unstable lands going into the jungles and onto mountain slopes

expanding populations and expanding farming ,that has to keep pace with the expanding populations are very strong forces that encroach upon the rainforest's

clearing them for farming and settlement areas .

Rainforest's always are in third world countries and always in third world countries corruption and the need for money s highest

in North Africa,India,Mexico ,millions of people are effected by land loss and desertification and some have died as a result

,the Sahara is growing by 7 kilometers a year

and most of the desserts we know are a results of mans actions ,and they are increasing ,not getting less ,in the dinosaurs days ,there were few desserts.

collectively this planet is drying up ,

each degree rise in temperature means 10%crop loss

and there is less and less water (because of deforestation),to irrigate this production ,

and there are less and less farmers to do it..

Arable lands and their farms are lost all over the globe. Many farmers sons abandon farming and head for the cities.

Northern China is drying up, what once were millions of food producing people, are now hungry refugees ,running for their lives from the all consuming dust storms.

This will have a great effect on world food prices when they start buying at what ever cost, to feed their people.

The farmers that are left have to feed some 70 million more people than the year before but with less topsoil.

Over the last half century,

Population growth & rising incomes have tripled world grain demand from 640 million tons to 1,855 million

In the near future the global farming community will not be able to feed every body ,food prices will continue to rise. .

RISING SEAS

The northpole is melting ,and we will know it without ice in our life times.

this does not affect the sea level because it is ice that is already in the water.but the melting ice from Green land and the south pole ,are another matter

--------------------------------------...

here are some positive ideas to help the planet

global warming cannot be stopped but we can stop helping it becoming faster,and being friendlier to out Environment cannot be bad

if you do any cleaning up leave signs behind saying who cleaned,why and ask people not to start dumping rubbish again ,leave a hole or bins ,in case people come with trash ,

we have done a lot of comunity cleaning and if you dont leave alternatives or try to work on peoples guilt feelings (some people actually have those ,but not many)

than your efforts are a waste of time.

these are Al gores sites

http://events.stepitup2007.org/............

http://www.stepitup2007.org/

http://events.stepitup2007.org/............

POSITIVE ACTIONS

if you want to help the planet ,plant a tree every week ,if everyone on the planet did we we would be able to slowdown the destructive processes

reduce carbon emisions,and they are already working on that by alternative forms of energy and regulations on carbon producing materials,aerosol cans,burning rubbish,industrial chimneys,powerplants etc.

the capture of carbon and the production of water and assist the aquiferous manta.

the world bank pays large subsidies for reforrestation to capture carbon and the best tree for this is the Pawlonia

Waterharvesting projects ,such as millions of small dams.to redirect over ground waterflows from the rains into the ground to supply subteranian water supplies.

the protection of existing forrests.

stop building more highways,urban planning to include vegetation stop building cities encourage people to return to the land to conduct their business from there which now has become possible thanks to the internet.

education to motivate people to auto sufficiency by building more home food gardens.

education on environmental awareness

education on family planning to curb over´population

Agricultural education and improvements to follow the principals or sustainability and soil management.

more environmental or land ,design to prevent bush fires,such as--fire breaks

,more dams.regulations and control for public behaviour

alternative effeciant public transport to discourage the use of the internal conbustion engine

recicling wastes,limit water use

here are a 100 more ways

http://www.eco-gaia.net/forum-pt/index.p...

Answer 4

nope

Answer 5

There is no scientific evidence that CO2 from autos is the "root" of  the climate change we are now experiencing. Don't forget that the Earth has been getting quite a bit warmer since the last true Ice Age. Huge glaciers used to cover the upper half of North America (several times in fact).  There were no cars when the Earth warmed enough to cause their retreat, TWENTY THOUSAND YEARS ago.

Al Gore did not tell you all the facts, and that's the TRUTH.

Anthropogenic CO2 may be a contributing factor, but so might the 6% increase in SUNLIGHT the Earth is receiving recently. Or methane from agriculture. Plain old water vapor is a powerful "greenhouse agent" but you can't blame it on your car.

Answer 6

Don't know about global warming, but cars do produce lots of bad stuff for our lungs and environment not to mention about 50,000 lives lost each year. These are bad things for sure, but the worst thing is that we could be using water as a fuel.  In 1965 I saw a new vehicle that was to be used by all military and government agencies. This vehicle was powered by water, but that would have really ruined everything for the oil people so it had to be taken out. This vehicle and the water as a fuel was a sure thing at the time. The link below is about water as a fuel.  It is a news clip from Fox, but it is not really new.

Answer 7

I am most concerned about Al Gore being the root of all our global warming issues.  He wildly exaggerated the issue and lives in huge CO2 spewing houses between when he flies on his private pollution streaming private jet.  For a better perspective of how minimal global warming is, watch the movie:

aconvenientfiction.com

Answer 8

Not a bad idea. I'm not allowed to driver until I'm 18 anyways....But the global warming thing, volcanoes and other natural things cause it more than cars.

Answer 9

I support how you care for the envirorment, but cars aren't the only causes of global warming. Factories, Grills,ect.! So not only focus on cars but focus also on the topics i've given you. I hope i've helped

Answer 10

Ok. I guess

Answer 11

It will help safety, but not global warming.

Most people younger than 18 don't have their own cars; they are also still in school, which will be near their home so they don't have much of a commute.

The restriction that underage drivers must have an adult driver in the car with them also reduces the number of underage drivers on the road.

However, big coal burning power plants do give off a lot of green house gases and our need for electricity is only increasing.  As for cars adults cause most the pollution we get from them.  So limiting young drivers there won't help much.

There is no easy solution to global warming, but the best solution is to give up the US's huge thirst for oil.  Alternate fuels are a good way to do this, but it seems that electricity is a better way.  Stopgap measures of reducing the amount of driving or forcing more people to take public transport are ideas will help much more than your idea of reducing the number of underage drivers.  However, even these ideas won’t be enough to reverse the trend.

In fact it may be already too late.  It wouldn’t be too late if we made a concentrated effort to stop global warming now, but the US has shown no relevant actions on this.  Some people and some local governments are taking steps to reduce the emission of green house gases, but the Federal Government isn’t even trying.  There are a few pilot programs in the works, like the gasification of coal and ethanol production has been going on for a long time, but these programs have a minor effect and are far outweighed by the number of cars on the road today.  Once you get past the cars then you need to get past the trucks.  Most of our goods and food are carried by trucks to their destination, if we reduced this number that might help.

But the final solution is one where we give up burning non-renewable resources.  I applaud your concern and thoughts about global warming, but you don’t have a very good plan.  It sounds good to you because you see a lot of kids driving when they could really do without it.  But, you are not seeing the bigger picture.  Even nuclear energy isn’t a good solution.  The mountain reservoir that the US is building will be full in less than 100 years and not usually for thousands.  Of course we could take a lot of that waste and refine it to get more use out of it, but people get very nervous about that since the refinement process creates weapon grade fissionable material like plutonium.  I heard a news report from a group working on creating a fusion reactor.  Currently the containment of the plasma is a huge problem and it may be unworkable.  Helium 3, an isotope of helium could be used instead, but there is no source of Helium 3 on earth, and there is only a theoretical chance of it existing on the moon.  So it looks like fusion reactors will have to wait for a major improvement in technology.

The best method we seem to have is one based on electricity.  The problem is that electricity is hard to store.  Lead acid batteries are dangerous and sodium lithium batteries are expensive.  We need to improve the technology, but this looks like something that is do-able.  But, we are running out of time.  For those that don’t think humans could have caused global warming, consider this:  We have been burning wood and coal for longer than recorded history, and at an every increasing rate.  That coal was formed from trees that grew and died when the dinosaurs roamed.  So by burning that coal we are in effect burning wood from as far back as Tyrannosaurus Rex and farther.  When we discovered oil we just started burning more and more of it.  If you dump carbon dioxide in the air for effectively millions of years then there has to be a cumulative effect.  People say that a volcano can put out more green house gases with one explosion than the US can create in a year, but they don’t see that when a volcano erupts today, we are still putting out more than our share of green house gases.  The Earth is a pretty healthy closed system, but if you play with the parts long enough you are going to get a problem.  The earth may be undergoing a normal cyclic increase in heat (although historically we are due for an ice age around now), but we are not helping the problem with our continued emissions.

Additional Notes:  If you are worried about safety then there are some laws that are being passed to handle that.  One law limits the amount of teenagers that can be in one car, figuring the fewer teenagers the less chance of the driver getting distracted and becoming involved in an accident.  There are laws being proposed that limit the hours when a teenager can drive, so they don’t drive at night when it becomes harder to see.  There are laws that say a teenage driver can’t use a cell phone in their car.  There are even pledge programs to try and make teenagers drive safer.  Of all the ideas I mentioned I think the last one is the weakest.  The simple solution might be to double all traffic fines for those under the age of 20, and triple it for boys.  Since this would apply unilaterally they wouldn’t be a case of prejudice, besides many studies have shown that teenagers are the worst drivers and that boys are much worse than girls are when they get behind the wheel.  Now I know this won’t stop someone like Paris Hilton from being a road hazard, but then a suspended license didn’t either.  In fact the judge felt the only way to reach her was to put her into jail and make sure that there will be no other plan, program, or situation that will stop her from spending her 45 days.  If we take more steps like that, making the penalties greater for the worst offenders then we might have safer roads.  Most kids don’t have big wallets, and if they are paying over $50 for a simple speeding ticket those smaller wallets will force them to slow down.

Otherwise a good solution is one of those long and gradual speed bumps.  The speed bump is a 4”-6” rise in street level for a distance of a yard or two.  If you drive over that bump at 35 mph or less then you have no problem and don’t have to stop, but if you drive too fast then you car will fly through the air with a hard landing on the shocks.  I also know a freeway on ramp that has regular lines cut in the road surface.  When you drive over those lines at 25 miles or less you get a mild vibration, but when you go faster the vibration becomes too much and you have to slow down.  Instead of complaining about the problem, you should propose some solutions.  It is the hard way to solve a problem, but it may be the best.  Especially when the local government doesn’t want to spend money to solve your problem.

Answer 12

Wouldn't hurt.  There are many 16 year olds that shouldn't be on the road.

Answer 13

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your idea is outstanding! (clap clap)

however, although cars DO emit greenhouse gasses, which cause global warming, they are not the root. right now, many states are trying to reduce air pollution from cars by placing ethanol, a biofuel that reduces a cars need for gas, in their gas.

the "root" is considered burning fossil fuels (oil, petroleum, gas), which happens in power plants, factories, cars, electricity generators, and houses.

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