What type of car is best for the environment?
- staycoolwithmaddy
- Jan 5
- 6 min read
By Maddy Jan 5 2024
Dictionary!
Words in the dictionary are highlighted in blue so they can be easily found in the article!
Heavy metals are hard metals found underground. They are lots of work to dig up and the process of doing so can also disrupt environments.
Gasoline, or gas is a liquid that is pumped from underneath the ground by giant machines. It is used all around the world because it burns easily, creating lots of energy that can power cars and many other things. However, when gasoline is spilled, it can pollute the land and ocean, making it toxic. Habitats are also disrupted by the loud and long process of drilling the gas out of the earth.
Carbon Dioxide is created when anything is burned. When millions of cars burn gas at the same time for years, it creates lots of carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere, building a kind of blanket around the Earth. This traps the sun’s heat inside the atmosphere, raising temperatures and leading to global warming. It’s confusing, right? You can visit my first blog post for more details!
Friction is the energy and heat you get from rubbing two things together. For example, rub your hands together super fast! Do you feel them becoming hot? This is because of friction.
A Chemical Reaction is when two things combine to turn into something completely different. Those two things are broken up into tiny, invisible parts, then re-arranged so fast that you can’t even see it. For example, gasoline is combined with heat and oxygen to create fire. By the time the fire is done, all these things are converted into carbon dioxide, water, and more!
Have you heard of electric cars? What about gas cars? Maybe even hybrid cars? In today’s world, cars are necessary for everyday life, but they aren’t good for the environment. In this blog post, you’ll learn the pros and cons of each type of car and which is better!
Before we find out, let’s learn what exactly these types of cars are.
A word from Earth- Energy is what makes things move. Energy in cars can be stored in two different ways that we will be focusing on today- electricity from a battery and in gas.
Gasoline cars (also called gas powered cars)
Gasoline cars run by burning gas. When the gasoline is burned, it pushes on a special part of the car, moves another part, which moves another part, which spins the wheels, moving the car. When this gas burns, there’s not actually a fire burning it. When the gasoline is mixed with the air in the engine, a chemical reaction happens. The gasoline and air in the car is combined and transformed into carbon dioxide, water, energy, and heat.
(Below is a photo of a gas-powered car)
The carbon dioxide made by burned gas is released into the air and atmosphere. When millions of cars emit this carbon dioxide, it builds up, forming a layer around the entire earth. Like a blanket, this layer makes it harder for heat to escape the earth, so the earth gets a teensy bit hotter because of it. This heat isn’t good for the environment- it hurts animals and their habitats. In the past 20 years, scientists have developed electric cars because they don’t burn gas, meaning they don’t directly release CO2. Let’s dive into those next!
Electric cars (also called EV’s!)
Electric cars get all their energy from a big, flat battery underneath the car. The battery gives electricity to the motor, which turns the wheels. Because the car gets all of its power from electricity, it does not need to be filled with gas. Instead, it has to be recharged, just like a phone. Most people have special chargers built into their garage so they can charge their car at night. Some parking lots have specific parking spots equipped with chargers so people can charge their cars away from home, especially after a long drive. Below is an example of a parking spot for electric cars.
(Below is an example of a Tesla, a popular brand for EV’s.)
Since these cars don’t burn gas, no carbon dioxide comes out of the car. Since too much carbon dioxide is bad, and electric cars don’t make CO2, that means electric cars are better for the environment than gas-powered cars, right?
Well, here’s the downside. The electricity used to power an electric car has to come from somewhere. Sometimes it’s made by harnessing the energy from the sun and wind, which doesn’t produce any carbon dioxide. Since making this energy doesn’t produce carbon dioxide, it’s often referred to as carbon-free energy. But other times, electricity is made by burning coal or even gas. When electricity is made that way, it still makes carbon dioxide, which we know isn’t good for the environment. However, since electric vehicles use electricity created by a mix of carbon-free and coal-based energy, these cars still make much less carbon dioxide in total than to gas-powered vehicles.
Okay… So electric vehicles still contribute to the creation of carbon dioxide, but they don’t make the carbon dioxide because nothing is being burned inside of them. And they still create less carbon dioxide than gas-powered cars. So they’re still better, right?
Well, there’s another catch. These cars take lots of heavy metals and valuable resources to create- many more resources than it takes to make a gas-powered car. This is because it takes lots of rare ingredients to make a car battery. Mining these heavy metals is hard, and digging all of them up can ruin animal habitats. So are electric cars still better than gas cars?
Let’s go over what we’ve learned so far:
CO2 is bad for the environment.
Gasoline cars make more CO2 than EV’s.
EV’s still emit a bit of Co2 indirectly, but not as much as a gas car does.
EV’s also require more heavy metals than gasoline cars to build. Mining these can disrupt habitats and release toxins, which isn’t good for the environment.
Gas and Hybrid are made up of less heavy metals.
Woo! That’s a lot. We’ve just got one more type of car to cover now! Let’s learn about hybrid cars.
Hybrid car-
A hybrid car is a mix of a gasoline car and an electric car. Most hybrids have a small battery that runs the lights and other small parts of the car, but gas is really what makes it move. You will need to refill gas on this car, but you never need to charge it because it gets its electricity from friction when you brake the car. This works because the lights and windows take so little electricity that it can be fueled by just the small amount of electricity harnessed from this friction.
These cars use slightly less gas than fully gasoline cars but slightly more heavy metals than fully gas cars. (A photo of a hybrid car is below)
Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for! Which of these three cars is best for the environment?
Well, there are a lot of things to consider! Let’s see.
Gas-powered cars are less harmful to make, but the gas used in their lifetime pollutes the air and contributes to climate change.
On the other hand, EV’s are more harmful to make because of the amount of heavy metals involved in building them. However, they don’t emit much carbon dioxide during their lifetime.
Okay… so which is better? Let’s take a look at these graphs.
As you can probably tell from these graphs, car emissions aren’t straightforward. There are so many factors to consider! Gas cars definitely emit more carbon dioxide, but EV’s take so many more heavy metals to create. So which is better?
Which is better? I’m asking you because you decide. There’s not just one answer for everybody. If you live in California like I do, gas is expensive, so it might be worth it to get an electric car. But if you live in some southern states in the US, car chargers are hard to find. So it’s really about what’s easiest for you. But you read this post for a solid answer, so I'm going to give you one.
What’s actually best is to avoid using your car as much as possible. Riding a bike or walking places when the distances are short can make an impact because neither of these modes of transportation emits any carbon dioxide or takes many heavy metals! For longer distances, ask your parents about public transport. Public transport emits a similar amount of carbon dioxide as your car, yet it carries so many more people! So, the amount of carbon dioxide being emitted per person is much less.
If everyone makes an effort to use more eco-friendly modes of transportation, such as bikes, walking, or taking the bus, we can make a big difference together. We can do this!
Select your opinion on the best car!
Gasoline Cars
Electric Cars
Hybrid Cars
Flying Car (duh)
My Sources!
Where I got my information!
https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/oil-and-gas-development
https://giphy.com/search/turning-one-lego-set-into-another
https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/energy-explained/where-does-electricity-come-from
https://plana.earth/academy/what-is-difference-between-carbon-neutral-net-zero-climate-positive
https://www.constellation.com/energy-101/energy-innovation/what-is-clean-energy.html#:~:text=Typically%2C%20the%20term%20%E2%80%9Cclean%E2%80%9D,dioxide%20during%20the%20generating%20process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2tDOYkFCYo
Where I got my photos / drawing inspo / photos I traced
My spreadsheet where I made the graphs!
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