Some Info About Cars Carbon Footprint Is Interesting

By Cornelius Nunev

Governments and concerned citizens are doing everything they can to lower cars' carbon footprint. There's an advantage to it, certainly. However, there is some intriguing info out there about automobiles carbon footprint.

Not too bad to own an automobile

One of the most common things people look at when it comes to reducing their carbon footprint is their car. A number of people are working hard to lower the carbon footprint of civilization.

AutoGuide points out that the carbon footprint of a vehicle may not be that bad as shown by a new Zealand study. IT showed that the Toyota Landcruiser with its 4.6-liter V-8 and a full-size SUV has the same carbon footprint as a dog does.

The Landcruiser averages 6,200 miles a year making 55.1 gigajoules of energy. That is equal to 1.1 acres of land. That is not very bad compared with the 2.07 acres demands for a dog to live. The average dog uses 3.17 ounces of meat and 5.5 ounces of grain per sitting. That means that just one year of kibble to feed a dog is more than one year of running a vehicle, according to the study done by Robert and Brenda Vale.

More interesting things to consider

Buying a dog will not cost you carloans, though purchasing a new Landcruiser will, but that does not mean anything about a carbon footprint. People typically drive 12,400 miles instead of the 6,200 figure Vales presented. The comparison was not quite accurate, but even with the higher number, the Landcruiser only produced a carbon footprint of 2.2 acres of land.

They likewise found a cat had a carbon footprint roughly equal to a Volkswagen Golf.

Edmunds found, using Environmental Protection Agency testing procedures that a Ford Raptor pickup, with a 411 horsepower, 6.2-liter V-8, emits less carbon dioxide, non-methane hydrocarbons and nitrous oxide, the main emissions looked at in automobiles, than gas-powered leaf blowers.

When compared with the Ryobi four-stroke motor leafblower and the Echo two-stroke motor leafblower, the Raptor put out 6.8 times fewer carbon dioxide than the Ryobi, 13.5 times less nitrous oxide and 36 times less NMHC emissions. It was much worse with the two strokes.

Cars not that bad comparatively

Even electric cars carbon footprint may be larger than one might think. According to the New York Times, since roughly 45 percent of the country's electricity is generated by coal, powering an electric car has a carbon footprint in coal-heavy areas. Granted, it isn't terrible; a study by the Union of Concerned Experts found it's no worse than driving a normal fuel-efficient subcompact.

There was a survey in 2011 by the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership, according to AutoBlog, that showed it costs more emissions to produce electric cars. In fact, it costs 8 percent more carbon dioxide to make a hybrid car compared with a normal car. It is 12 percent more if the car is a plug-in hybrid and 23 percent more if the car is a complete electric car. You should not go to Nissan dealers, Everett, Washington to Miami, Florida, trying to find electric cars to cut back your carbon footprint; you may not really be doing that.

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