If we eliminated all cars that burn fossil fuels in the world how long would it take for the air to clear?

Question

Lets say the world reduces pollution by 85% how long would it take for the co2 or whatever it is to go away where would it go is it permanent?

Answer 1

Getting rid of cars that burn fossil fuels would do very little. The electric alternative requires significant co2 emissions to generate the electricity to charge the car.  The bio fuels also require co2 to convert.  

Other sources of co2 are boats, planes and trains.  

It may be a nice concept but not at all practical or realistic.

Answer 2

if there was no CO2 the earth would be so cold that it would be uninhabitable!

Answer 3

i would say about 2 days

Answer 4

I've heard estimates that if all pollution stopped, not just cars but

power plants and factories it would take approximately 100 years for the ecosystem to recover, and that doesn't include all the garbage we put into the environment that lasts much more than 100 years, like some of our solid waste and some nuclear waste lasts thousands of years.

Answer 5

You're asking two questions here.  Carbon dioxide is a natural component of clear air and is necessary for green plants.  It is a "greenhouse gas" but then so are water vapor and methane (a natural byproduct of microorganisms).  Higher levels of any of these ingredients will cause the earth's temperature to rise.  What causes smoke and smog are particulates and oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, produced by vehicles, power plants and factories.  If these emissions suddenly stopped, the plants and microorganisms could clean up the air within a few weeks.

Answer 6

I don't think that it will ever go away...becuz pollution comes from more than just cars...it comes from a lot of places...so sorry, but no...I don't think that it will go away...

Answer 7

i do believe it will never clear

its the rate we are letting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that by a certain time it will be a certain temperature

but if we stopped burning all these fuels and stopped polluting planet right now suddenly, there would be a lot less impact on the world than expected

but how would we get to work?

oh, aren't we all planet killing b******s?

Answer 8

CO2 is not exactly a pollutant, and cars produce less than a third of world CO2 emissions, we also have to find a toll that will take that extra CO2 from the atmosphere, and the only tool I can think of is forests, a lot more forests than we have now, or ever were on our globe.

Answer 9

I dont know if it will clear it cant go any were. But maby plants will absorb the bad pollution so it may clear faster than we think.

Answer 10

The Co2 that is being put into the atmosphere by cars  has been in the atmosphere before, during the time of the dinosaurs, if the earth were to warm to that level northern Canada would be similar to Florida.

This Co2 was long ago absorbed by plants and then covered by millions of years of rock and soil. While not a great alternative Bio fuel is better than Oil because while it adds Co2 to the atmosphere, Co2 is also removed from the atmosphere to grow the corn (or what ever?) to make the fuel.

A comment above said electric cars were no good as the power still comes from a power station, have you not heard of solar cells. But more directly addressing the question if Co2 did drop the earth would probably recover fairly quickly, the current estimate of Co2 we produce is ~8-9bn tonnes a year. About half of this stays in the atmosphere the rest is absorbed by plants and the oceans.

Answer 11

According to the United Nations (UN)  methane gas causes more pollution than all transportation combined.  Somehow we have to figure how to get cows to stop farting.

Thats correct.  More pollution is caused by cows farting than all transportation combined.