Polar Bear Central

A recent series of news stories indicates that polar ice caps are thawing "faster than expected," and that this phenomenon may result in the extinguishing of one of mankind's most beloved creatures, the polar bear. Evidently polar bears have to be able to migrate onto the ice to fish for food, and this shift in climate is already starting to disrupt their ability to feed themselves.

Reasonable men of science consider this shift in arctic climate to be due to global warming resulting from the greenhouse effect, which is brought on mostly by vehicle emissions. Although some scientists are hypothesizing that it may be too late to turnaround the course of global warming, at least in the short-term, others consider that we need to do something drastic - now - to avert environmental calamity. (continued...)

Internal combustion engines are the big culprit here; they give off an assortment of gasses into the atmosphere as they burn off fuel, including CO2, one of the chief causes of the greenhouse effect. Two car manufacturers, Toyota and Honda, have produced gas-electric hybrid vehicles - the Prius by Toyota, at this point the top-rated hybrid fashioned to have minimal emissions, and a lot of designs by Honda, including the newly engineered Honda Civic - smarter, sexier, more fuel-efficient, and with fewer emissions, than its earliest versions. Ford offers up a hybrid sport utility vehicle in its new Escape, and even Lexus has come out with a deluxe hybrid.

Numerous automobiles on the market nowadays can burn a gasoline-ethanol mix, which can lower emissions. In point of fact, ANY gasoline-powered vehicle can withstand blends of up to ten percent ethanol, while many can use E85, an ethanol - gasoline blend containing 85 percent ethanol. The Dodge Caravan and the Chrysler Sebring are only 2 of many contemporary model cars on the market which can burn E85.

One trouble is that ethanol, in particular E85, isn't readily accessible everywhere. In addition, some nay sayers have brushed off ethanol as impractical, claiming that ethanol needs more energy to make than it produces. As global political and environmental concerns intensify the call for more alternatives to petroleum-based fuels, scientists will keep on working on more effective ways of producing ethanol.

Diesel cars can run on biodiesel, a combination of regular diesel fuel and vegetable oil - based fuel; some automobiles are being run on D100, which is one hundred percent vegetable oil. Two headaches with biodiesel are, again, accessibility, and the emissions of nitrogen oxide, another culprit in the greenhouse effect. Though biodiesel is promising, and has the additional benefit of cutting down dependence on overseas oil, any actual campaign to make biodiesel cars more popular will have to accompany much more rigid emissions standards which greatly reduce nitrogen oxide content.

An interesting irony is that the EPA's gas mileage standards, while having been criticized as inexact, are in reality a good way to estimate automotive emissions. That's because the Environmental Protection Agency actually measures the emissions leaving the vehicle as a way to approximate automobile mileage. While a high MPG rating may not of necessity be precise in terms of your petrol usage, it's in fact a pretty good way to select a car with lower emissions.

Global warming threatens more than just polar bears; as the polar ice caps disappear, the temperature of the seas rises along with the sea level. Warmer ocean temperatures fuel hurricanes, making level 3, 4, and 5 hurricanes more common. And many millions of people, in Micronesia, Southeast Asia, and around the Earth live in regions literally inches above sea level; their home ground, and perhaps their lives, are jeopardized by the rise in sea level accompanying global warming. While driving an automobile with low gas emissions Is not going to entirely resolve the issue of global warming, it's a contribution that any buyer shopping for a new car can resolve to make.