Impact of Private Car Ownership on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Discuss About The Australia Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rising.

According to Ravallion (2017), standards of living refer to the certain levels of the comfort, goods, materials, necessities and wealth that are needed as well as made available to a certain section of the society that exists within a country or any other territorial boundaries. The standard of living of a person might include various other factors like income of the person and other such factors that might help the concerned people to understand the socioeconomic strata wherein the person might belong. The following essay relates to the various ways in which the social changes and the economic changes within the lifestyle maintained by the concerned individual. The matters that pertain to the increase in standards of living that results in social changes mainly increase in private car ownership per household and economic changes particularly growth in tourism industry create serious effects on the environment or not is becoming an issue that is generating debate among people. However, critics argue that due to this trend families try to purchase more cars that consume less fossil fuels such as compact cars while opponents hold the view point that growth in tourism industry can be ecologically beneficial as government enforce laws to control the tourism industry to preserve the environment. The supporters, claim that high quality of living reflected through social changes that more private cars increase in pollution and greenhouse gas emission. Apart from this, the economic changes show growth in tourism industry which leads to deforestation and also clearing wildlife destruction in certain areas.

It is obvious that in areas where people enjoy high standards of living, there is an increase in the number of private cars per household has led to growing concerns regarding emissions. The increase in the number of private cars has in turn led to the increase of the release of the toxic elements into the atmosphere, especially carbon monoxide and other greenhouse gases that are released into the atmosphere by (Firnkorn and Müller 2011, n.p.). In Australia, one third house have one car, more than 50% of houses have two or more cars, and 2% of households (178,000) have more than five cars (Salt 2017, n.p.). In UK, car ownership increased from 19 million in 1971 to 31 million in 2007 (Leibling 2008, p.3). These cars contribute to greenhouse gas emissions like in Australia, 49.2% emissions emitted from 1990 to 2016 which is equal to 59.5 megatons (Patel and Woodley 2016, n.p.). The reports suggest that 26% of carbon dioxide gas is emitted from cars in UK (Independent.co.uk 2018, n.p.). Moreover, in China 8688 million of tones of these gases released in year 2012(Shan et.al 2018, n.p.). Therefore, the rise in standards of living socially could harm the environment.

Ecological Benefits and Harms of High Standard of Living

Conversely, opponents claim that families owning more than one car can have benefits for the environment. This is due to the fact that the families are trying to purchase fuel efficient cars that might serve the purpose of curbing down fuel consumption. The compact cars being small in size tend to consume lesser amount of fuel thereby leading to the lowering of the levels of the air pollution (Tirumalachetty, Kockelman and Nichols 2013, n.p.). In UK, for example, 150,00 hybrid cars were sold up to May 2018 (Nextgreencar.com 2018, n.p.). In Australia, 12154 units of these cars are sold in 2016 which is higher than the year 2013 to 2015 (Costello 2017, n.p.). These compact cars reduce the gas emissions for instance, 366.9 million tons of carbon dioxide emits in year 2017 which is lower than the 378.9 million tons in 2016 in UK (Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk 2018 p.3). Hence, people have high living of standard they may buy more compact cars to reduce the pollution and make environment safe.

However, it is not necessarily true that there has been an increase in the purchase of fuel efficient cars in all countries enjoying high standard of living. The residents of these countries tend to rely on the age-old models of cars that run mostly on fossil fuel and thereby contribute to the increase in the pollution levels within the country. This in turn affects the environment of the concerned country and the global environment as a whole. This in turn leads to the air pollution which in turn proves to be harmful for the environment in the long run (Poudenx 2008, n.p.). The residents of both developing as well as the developed countries are reported to buy cars that run on the conventional fuels like petrol and diesel due to the shortage of the funds that they might invest (Burke and Zhu 2015, n.p.). Thus, it might be said that the increase in the number of private vehicles in the households have led to the increase in the release of the pollutants in the environment thereby impacting it in a negative way.

In the terms of economic changes, high standards of living increase the growth in the tourism industry which affects the environment, in terms of the land forests to build more hotels, more tourist sites like theme parks and golf courses. This might lead to the disruption of the wildlife as well as the natural environment of the concerned area. Almost 96000 hectares of forests were cleared on an annual basis majorly for the purposes of developments in the field of tourism in Malaysia (Clean Malaysia 2018, n.p.). Furthermore, in cape tribulation rainforest are endangered due to tourist industry for making new roads, picnic point, in Australian continent (Rainforest Information Centre Educational Supplement). Thus, it might be said that deforestation due to the increase in tourism following improvement in standards of living has led greater degradation of the environment.

Impact of Tourism Industry on Deforestation

Certain economists contend that the growth in the tourism industry can be environmentally beneficial because authorities started to introduce stricter laws and new initiatives to protect the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 in Australia tends to employ the various laws for the protection of the natural heritage of the area, the wetland areas that exist within the country that bear international importance, the ecological communities and the places that bear heritage importance (Miller et al. 2015, n.p.). The Brazilian government has implemented the various laws that are monitored by the Ministry of Environment of the country that was created in the year 1992 (Duchelle et al. 2014, n.p.). The reports by the Environmental Protection Agency state that the Chinese government has been taking the measures that are related to the degradation of the environment in the country. The government in the country has been known to be implementing stricter laws that are related to the revival of the conditions within the country (Glasson and Therivel 2013, n.p.). The curtailment of the tourism industry might have led to the protection of the flora and the fauna of the concerned territories.

The above-stated statements might bear truth however, the legal system and environmental initiatives are inactive in some countries. Governmental bodies active in some countries particularly developing countries either did not get involved or fail to implement the laws of environmental protection in the areas. The authorities in Brazil, for instance, have not been capable of controlling the rates of deforestation that have been taking place in order to accommodate the tourism facilities in the country (Ometto, Aguiar and Martinelli 2011, n.p.).  In Malaysia, the clearing of the forests and the wildlife area have been leading to the homelessness of the wild animals in the area as well as leading to the conditions of their starvation (Fayissa, Nsiah and Tadasse 2008, n.p.). Thus, it might be pointed out that the increase in the tourism activities and majorly the inclusion of the hotels and the other amenities might have led to the depreciation of the government.

In conclusion, the increase in the living standards of the global population have led to social and economic changes with negative impacts on the environment. The governing bodies of the concerned territories must play the key roles in bringing about the positive impacts on the environment. The governmental bodies that have been active in the developing countries have been advised to put forth attempts in order to educate the concerned residents of the country in the matters that pertain to the use of the compact cars that might help in the reduction of the degradation of the environment. The government is also encouraged to preach the sustainable tourism techniques among the residents in order to prevent the environmental degradation that is caused by the various tourism activities.

Role of Legal Systems and Environmental Initiatives in Controlling Environmental Impact

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