Sengupta, S. (2023, June 13). Americans and their cars. The New York Times. Retrieved August
23 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/13/climate/car-emissions.html
The United States is highly ranked as the 6th highest producer for greenhouse gasses. The use of transportation, “accounts for the United States’ largest single share of emissions (38 percent of carbon dioxide emissions and 29 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions). ” One cause of that is specifically cars. Cars have become one of the main forms of transportation and became a big part of geography, with highways and cities. Cars have become a central part of our lives. Many United States citizens don’t have the option to take public transportation and walk. There are progressively more people trying to drive less, trying to insert more bike lanes, and fewer parking spots to discourage driving. But it shifts to the main focus where we spend our public money.
This article is related to environmental science because it focuses on greenhouse emissions, and talks about the problem with cars, a main source of our transportation. I thought this article was good, but it covered a lot of basic information that I knew about already. I did learn a lot about the history and how much cars actually shaped cities and suburbs geographically.
Personally I was unaware of just how big of an impact that cars have on the emissions that we as humans output. I wonder when cars began to have such an impact?
I think that is a really good question to ask. I personally don’t know the answer, but if I were to guess probably when they became a normal thing to use in society.