With today's world growing at an ever increasing rate so grows the environmental issues we face on a daily basis. An apparent problem we are attempting to effectively reduce is air pollution caused by harmful carbon dioxide emissions released into the atmosphere by the cars we drive. As of recent years we have been showing more concern for our environment, and the future generations that will live in it, and thus have come up with different ways to combat this process such as the production of hybrid cars and the increased use of ethanol-based fuels.
Carbon dioxide is not only a naturally occurring chemical in our atmosphere, but one of the most abundant as well, and nature tends to balance the amount, but some say that since the industrial revolution humans have been altering this process and have brought on a noticeable climate change. From 1990 to 2010 our total emissions as a nation increased twelve percent.
The main cause of our carbon dioxide emissions is the burning of fossil fuels. Whether it be from industrial use, transportation, or the generation of electricity it has been a problem for many years, but as of 2010 automobiles have been making up over thirty percent of the carbon emissions in America; an obvious area of concern (EPA). This concern has led to major car manufacturing companies like Honda, Toyota, Lexus, and Kia to begin working on more "fuel efficient" or hybrid cars. These cars are leading in the race in efficiency in the automobile world as they provide many more miles per gallon than the average. A hybrid car is both powered by fuel and electricity, an electric motor powers the wheels and a battery while a small ten to twenty horsepower gasoline powered engine powers a generator. The reason for the...