A typical lightweight vehicle in the U.S. emits 12,000 pounds of CO2 a year and 54 tons over its lifetime--and there are 130 million lightweight vehicles in the United States. Gasoline and diesel-burning automobiles are the second largest single source of CO2 emissions in the U.S.
One important way for you to help solve this problem is change HOW you drive your car.
What You Should Know
- Gasoline is made from oil. The U.S. currently imports 54% of its oil and two-thirds of the oil we use each day goes to transportation. By taking better care of your car and thereby improving its fuel efficiency, you will personally help reduce our country's dependence on foreign oil imports.
- The world's population has doubled in the last 50 years, but the number of cars on the planet has grown tenfold.
- In addition to carbon dioxide, cars emit other pollutants, such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide, which damage our crops and drinking water and cause smog, acid rain, respiratory problems, birth defects, and cancer.
Easy Things You Can Do
Keep your car tuned. A car that runs well uses less gas. Every month check to see if your radiator or anything else is leaking, if there's enough coolant in the radiator overflow bottle, if the battery terminals and air filters are clean, and if the drive belts are tight. You can check these things while you're filling up at the gas station. Follow your owner's manual recommendations for motor oil and fuel, avoiding high-octane fuel unless it's specified. Every spring and fall, have a mechanic perform a basic tune-up and be sure to change your oil every 5,000 miles--the improvement in fuel efficiency (15 - 50% depending on the shape your car is in) will more than make up for the cost.Inflate properly. Keeping your tires properly inflated can reduce your gasoline consumption by 6% which could save you $40 per year in gas cost, and will reduce the chance you'll have a blowout. Because tires lose pressure each month and with every 10°F drop in temperature, you should check that they--including the spare--are at the maximum recommended pressure once a month. Buy a two-dollar pressure tester at your hardware store or borrow one from the Home Greening Kit, and check your tires while you're filling up.
Don't idle. Letting your car idle for just 20 seconds burns more gasoline (and therefore emits more carbon dioxide) than turning your car off and on again does! Furthermore, contrary to popular belief, idling can actually harm your car, since it causes gasoline to condense on and damage your cylinder walls and spark plugs. The wear and tear on your ignition will cost you an average of only $10 a year, which will be repaid many times over by gas savings.
Keep it smooth. The more smoothly you drive, the less gas your car will use. Accelerating or braking rapidly when you're traveling at highway speeds can worsen your fuel efficiency by 33%! It's simple: The less you floor it and slam on the brakes, the less CO2 will be emitted. For longer trips, use cruise control.
Slow down. You can reduce your car's fuel consumption by 15% simply by driving 55 mph instead of 65. That's because every car's fuel efficiency starts to plummet after 60 miles per hour. Plan ahead so you have plenty of time to get to your destination--then slow down, relax, and turn on some good tunes.
Put ethanol--or other biofuels--in your car today! Gasoline is dirty. Diesel is dirtier. But there are cleaner, less polluting fuels out there that you should know about because, chances are, they will soon replace gasoline as we know it. Ethanol is the most widely used alternative fuel. Because it is made from corn it's renewable (unlike fossil fuels). Furthermore, because it's made from a plant, ethanol has no net carbon dioxide emissions, since the corn soaks up as much carbon dioxide when it's growing as the ethanol emits when it's burned in a car's engine. Most cars today can run on gasoline that has been blended with a little bit of ethanol, making it a slightly cleaner fuel. This blend, called E10, has become more widely available across the nation--check your owner's manual to see if your car can run on E10.
Use the air conditioner only when you're going over 40 miles per hour (otherwise open the windows).
Source: You Can Prevent Global Warming (and save money!) 51 Easy Ways, by Jeffrey Langholz, Ph.D., and Kelly Turner