Problems with automobile dependence

If you’re 110% dependent on your car there are some major eco-issues you’re contributing to. Currently the U.S. has about 4 million miles of paved roads alone, not counting parking spaces. Even if you ignore the fact that all these roads and parking lots are taking away our green spaces there are other negative eco-issues created by automobile use.

According to How to Make the World a Better Place: 116 Ways You Can Make a Difference gasoline and diesel fuel are linked to as many as 30,000 deaths annually (and that’s just in the U.S.).

Cars contribute to rising ozone levels and as these levels rise so do human deaths. Not counting death, cars create scads of health issues. According to the EPA, outdoor air pollution from cars, SUVs, trucks, and buses may cause the following negative health issues:

• Cancer
• Birth defects
• Reduced oxygen to body tissues.
• Developmental delays
• Reduced immunity
• Difficulty in breathing, decreases in lung capacity, inflammation of lung tissue and respiratory damage.
• Headache, dizziness, and nausea
• And more.

When gasoline is used to power cars it contributes to soil, air and water pollution.

The EPA notes that air pollution caused by gasoline can cause reproductive effects and developmental delays in wildlife, toxicity to aquatic plants and animals, and accumulation of pollutants in the food chain.

An excess of resources, energy, and materials are used to manufacture cars and in most cases all parts of a car are not recycled at the end of the car’s life.

If you want to ignore eco-issues created by cars you might take a look at other health issues like obesity and the related problems to being overweight. People walk far less now than they used to which of course is not entirely related to all this driving we’re doing now. Seriously, you can drive a lot, still exercise, and be fit, but overall, research shows that driving times do contribute to weight gain.

Of course the fact that gasoline is a limited resource, one that won’t be around forever, is a much more in-depth topic then we have time for right here, but it’s also is part of the negative auto dependence issue.

Coming up, some ways green your auto use and be healthier.

[image via stock.xchng]