TL: The Environmental Impact of the Car SO: Greenpeace International (GP) FN: BBS\BBSMAIN\ENV\GP\ENVGAIR\CAR.RPT DT: August 1991 Keywords: greenpeace reports cars transporation atmosphere effects urban smog air oil emissions gp safety / Introduction 5 Part One Historical and future trends 8 Part Two Environmental impacts of the car 16 Chapter 1 Global warming 18 Chapter 2 Air pollution 23 Chapter 3 Finding, transporting and using oil 34 Chapter 4 Resource costs of making cars 43 Chapter 5 Roads, safety and cities 47 Part Three The car lobby 52 Conclusions and Recommendations 58 Contacts 60 INTRODUCTION The typical American male devotes more than 1,600 hours a year to his car. He sits in it while it goes and while it stands idling. He parks it and searches for it. He earns the money to put down on it and to meet the monthly instalments. He works to pay for petrol, tolls, insurance, taxes and tickets. He spends four of his sixteen waking hours on the road or gathering resources for it. And this figure does not take account of the time consumed by other activities dictated by transport: time spent in hospitals, traffic courts and garages: time spent watching automobile commercials or attending consumer education meetings to improve quality of the next buy. The model American puts in 1,600 hours to get 7,500 miles: less than five miles an hour. Ivan Illich, Energy and Equity1 The industrialised worlds love affair with the car has not always been wholehearted. In 1907, a UK Prime Minister described it as a luxury that is apt to degenerate into a nuisance2. Recent USA commentators have pointed out that the average American male spends a quarter of his waking life either using a car or obtaining the resources to use it3. On the whole, however, the car has bitten deep into the soul of industrial society. Door-to-door flexibility, 24-hour availability, capacity to transport family members and goods in a mobile world of sound and warmth: the car is undoubtedly a benefit to the individual who possesses it. What is a benefit to the individual may be detrimental to society, however, particularly where the benefit is enjoyed by millions of individuals. The side-effects of automobile use air pollution, increased global warming, human deaths and injuries, habitat loss and loss of planetary resources have transformed the automobile from an individual indulgence into a planetary gamble. The age of the car has arrived, but it may not last for as long as we would wish. Car use is now a global issue: motor vehicles are the single biggest source of atmospheric pollution4; they contribute an estimated 14 per cent of the worlds carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning, a proportion that is steadily rising5; other exhaust fumes cause acid air pollution, cancer, lead-poisoning and a variety of bronchial and respiratory illnesses6; worldwide, a quarter of a million people die on the roads every year and 10 million are injured (Part 2, Chapter 5). There are other adverse effects, too. Motor vehicles globally use one-third of the worlds oil7. Finding oil involves habitat loss, oil spills, air and water pollution and large emissions of carbon dioxide not to mention the military and human cost of the numerous wars waged over oil this century (Part 2, Chapter 3). The manufacturing process involves not only raw materials such as steel, iron, rubber, lead, plastics and aluminium, but large amounts of substances that deplete the ozone layer, are greenhouse gases, or that use huge quantities of energy in the production process (Part 2, Chapter 4). Road-building involves the loss or irreparable degradation of delicate ecosystems all over the world, with material for new roads coming from large-scale rock-quarrying and gravel extraction (Part 2, Chapter 5). Disposal of old cars and car com-ponents is becoming a major difficulty, especially for items like tyres, batteries and oil (Part 2, Chapter 5). Underlying all of these problems, however, is the inescapable fact that drives all the others the increasing number of cars coming on to the worlds roads. In 1950 there were 53 million cars; by 1989 there were 423 million cars. Include trucks and commercial vehicles and the figure is 555 million and likely to double in twenty years time8. Our dependence on the car is currently causing serious environmental problems, which are already approaching crisis point in many countries. Increased dependence on the car will widen and deepen the severity of this crisis. 1. Illich, I. Energy and Equity, Calder and Boyars, London, (1974). 2. Asquith, H.H. Commenting on proposals to introduce car tax for the first time, (1907). 3. Illich, I. Energy and Equity, Calder and Boyars, London, (1974). 4. Walsh, M.P. Motor Vehicles and Global Warming. In Global Warming The Greenpeace Report, J.K. Leggett (ed), OUP, Oxford/New York, (1990). 5. MacKenzie, J.J. and Walsh, M.P. Driving Forces: Motor Vehicle Trends and their Implications for Global Warming, Energy Strategies, and Transportation Planning, World Resources Institute, Washington DC, (1990). 6. Walsh, M.P. Background Report on Vehicles, for Environment Division, OECD, Paris, (1989). 7. MacKenzie, J.J. and Walsh, M.P. Driving Forces: Motor Vehicle Trends and their Implication for Global Warming, Energy Strategies, and Transportation Planning, World Resouces Institute, Washington DC, (1990). 8. Motor Industry of Great Britain. World Automotive Statistics, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, London, (1990). PART 1 historical and future trends Number of persons per car, 19891 China 1055.0 India 455.0 Romania 80.0 USSR 21.0 Poland 8.2 East Germany (as was) 4.4 Japan 3.7 EC 2.6 UK 2.5 USA 1.6 Car ownership varies enormously around the world. Some people have never seen a car, others could not imagine life without one. Car ownership is expected to continue growing everywhere. Even the USA has not reached saturation point, with a projected growth of 2 per cent annually2. West Europe is expected to achieve around 4 to 5 per cent, and when the economies in Eastern Europe recover, there could be explosive growth in sales there3. Although economic recession and uncertainties caused by the Gulf crisis meant that 1990 was a poor year for car sales in some countries, this slowdown in sales did not occur everywhere. Sales in South Korea increased by 25 per cent in 19904 and in Thailand by 40 per cent5. And in the first two months of 1991, German car sales increased by 50 per cent over the previous year6. Car ownership initially shows great differences between sexes and income groups, with males and higher earners having a disproportionate stake in ownership. Different nationalities favour different types of car: Americans, Swedes and Germans prefer cars with large engines, while the French, Spanish and Italians use small cars. These national preferences can be encouraged or shaped by taxation and pricing policies relating to engine size or petrol cost. Competition between manufacturers Car manufacture is intensely competitive, multinational big business. General Motors and Ford remain the worlds leading car companies, but Japan has six companies in the top fourteen. From the table overleaf, it can be seen that: ten companies produce 70 per cent of the worlds cars; fourteen companies produce 80 per cent of the worlds cars; the US-based big three, GM, Ford and Chrysler, together produce 33 per cent of world output; Japans big six, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, and Suzuki, together produce 25 per cent; Europes manufacturers account for 21.5 per cent of the market. The world car market is dominated by a small number of companies, based in three regions the USA, Japan, and Europe. Technology that is the norm in these three regions determines market preferences throughout the world. Ranking of World Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, 1988 7 (Includes vehicles manufactured in other countries) Production Percent General Motors, US 7,743,000 16.1% 2 Ford Motor, US 6,227,000 12.9% 3 Toyota, Japan 4,084,000 8.5% 4 Volkswagen, Germany 2,875,000 .0% 5 Nissan, Japan 2,700,000 5.6% 6 Peugeot-Citroen, France2,465,000 5.1% 7 Chrysler, US 2,338,000 4.9% 8 Renault, France 2,102,000 4.4% 9 Fiat, Italy 2,050,000 4.3% 10 Honda, Japan 1,709,000 3.5% 11 Mazda, Japan 1,384,000 2.9% 12 Mitsubishi, Japan 1,261,000 2.6% 13 Suzuki, Japan 846,000 1.8% 14 Daimler-Benz, Germany 802,000 1.7% Other countries have tried to break into the market, but this has proved a high-risk enterprise. Malaysias Proton car industry collapsed in 1988, $247 million in debt and having drained funds desperately needed for health, water and rail services8. (It is currently the subject of a government rescue attempt.) Argentina, Brazil and Mexico have sought to pay off part of their huge foreign debts by car exports. Again, this is a risky business: Brazils auto industry nearly collapsed in the mid-80s9. Even once established, almost all auto industries at times need large handouts of state money to keep going. Some, such as British Leyland and Renault, become state-owned for a while, relying on public money for investment programmes. Once established, car-manufacturing industries are rarely allowed to fail. They turn into costly job-creation or even job-retention projects, although the same capital employed elsewhere could arguably be used much more effectively. In more confident times the industries carve out for themselves a central role in national economies, turning their survival into a self-fulfilling prophecy. A substantial number of US jobs is involved with the auto industry, thereby giving some credence to the clich that What is good for General Motors is good for America. Mergers and acquisitions Modern car manufacture is a fiercely competitive industry. The businesses in the league alternately fight each other for custom or come together to develop markets and specialist products when the costs would otherwise be too high. There is little room for sentiment manufacture and self-assembly plants are moved around the world to take advantage of cheap labour costs, or to beat tariff barriers. Nissans use of the UK as a launch pad into the European Community is an example of the latter, while GMs abandonment of the entire community of Flint, Michigan, was bitingly displayed in the surprising hit movie Roger and Me10. Political changes in Eastern Europe are a subject of great interest to car manufacturers. Fiat already has plant building under licence in Poland and Yugoslavia, and in March 1990 signed a 3 billion deal with the USSR, doubling its car-making capacity there11. Volkswagen bought 70 per cent of the Skoda factory in Czechoslovakia for $6.5 billion in early 199112. The possibilities can be seen by the example of what used to be called East Germany. While Fiat, Renault, Peugeot and Ford were forced to leave plants idle during the slowdown in Europe of 1990, Volkswagen and GMs Opel were working at full capacity at many of their assembly plants across Europe to meet the unprecedented level of demand in Germany13. The rate of production of new cars is difficult to assimilate: an annual output of 48 million means that, somewhere in the world, one new car appears every second. In eight hours, 40,000 new cars will have been built; in a day, 100,000. With a growth in the human population of some 90 million a year, the arrival of two new babies is accompanied by the arrival of one new car. And this rate of growth is, we are assured by the transport lobby, set to continue. Mackenzie and Walsh, in their report Driving Forces, estimate that the world total of trucks and cars - more than 500 million - could double to one billion over the next twenty years18. Mergers and acquisitions look set to diminish further the number of large car companies dominating the world market. GM acquired half the Swedish firm Saab in January 1990; the French firms of Peugeot and Citroen have merged; Ford has taken over the luxury firms Jaguar and Aston Martin. Volvo recently took a 20 per cent stake in the French state firm Renault and Honda owns 20 per cent of Rover. Ford and Volkswagen have linked their Latin American operations under the name of Autolatina. The trend is towards fewer companies producing an ever-larger number of cars. The dominant markets for new cars are Europe and North America, which already have around 40 per cent of the worlds vehicle population each, but their fleets have many vehicles scrapped and replaced each year. As an example, although the total number of registered motor vehicles in the United States grew by only 4.4 million (a 2.5 per cent increase) between 1987 and 1988, more than 11 million vehicles were retired from use during that time14. Thus, during 1988, total motor vehicle sales in the USA were almost 16 million units, or one-third of the 48 million produced worldwide in 198815. In 1950, there were about 53 million cars on the worlds roads, three- quarters of them in the United States. Forty years later, the fleet is over 400 million, an increase of about 9 million cars per year; Overall growth in production has been dramatic, rising from about 5 million cars per year to almost 50 million16; The 1990 recession in parts of the world, coupled with uncertainties caused by the Gulf crisis, has caused this growth to level out. New car sales in Western Europe fell by 1.5 per cent in 1990, but this was from a record high of 13.47 million cars in 198917. Although the record sales figures of the 1980s may not be matched in the 1990s, production is at an all-time high; even reduced production levels would continue to swell greatly the enormous number of cars in the world. 1. Motor Industry of Great Britain, World Automotive Statistics. Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, London, (1990). 2. Walsh, M.P. Global Trends in Motor Vehicles and their Use Implications for Climate Modification, World Resources Institute, Washington DC, (1988). 3. Renner, M. Rethinking the Role of the Automobile, Worldwatch Institute, Washington, (1988). 4. Gadacz, O. Korea Tallies 25 per cent Sales Hike at Home, By Exports of 2.5 per cent, Automotive News, (11 February 1991). 5. Dunne, M.J. Thailand Sales in Pleasant Rut Up 40 per cent a Year, Automotive News, (18 February 1991). 6. Financial Times, London, (5 April 1991). 7. Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association of the United States Inc, World Motor Vehicle Data, (1990). 8. Todd, H. The Proton Saga Saga, New Internationalist, (May 1989). 9. Hinchburger, Brazils Auto Industry: No Miracle Here, Multinational Monitor, (January/February 1990). 10. Roger and Me, Warner Bros, (1989). 11. Fiat signs 3 Billion Deal with Soviet Union, The Guardian, London, (26 March 1990). 12. Zagorin, A. Go East, Young Man, Time magazine, New York, (14 January 1991). 13. The Financial Times, London, (5 April 1991). 14. Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association of the United States Inc, Facts and Figures 89. 15. MacKenzie, J.J. and Walsh, M.P. Driving Forces: Motor Vehicle Trends and their Implications for Global Warming, Energy Strategies, and Transportations Planning, World Resources Institute, Washington DC, (1990). 16. As reference 15. 17. Financial Times, London, (5 April 1991). 18. As reference 15. PART 2 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF THE CAR CHAPTER ONE GLOBAL WARMING We are certain of the following . . . emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and nitrous oxide. These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect, resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earths surface. The main greehouse gas, water vapour, will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it. We calculate with confidence that . . . the long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 per cent to stabilise their concentrations at todays levels; methane would require a 15 to 20 per cent reduction. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 19901 Global warming has recently emerged at the top of the worlds environmental agenda. In October 1990, the verdict of the worlds climate scientists, expressed through the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was unequivocal. Greenhouse gases emitted into the earths atmosphere are accumulating rapidly, as a result of humanitys activities. The likelihood is that this will produce rapid warming of the earths temperature, with unforeseeable and possibly tragic results. If we allow these gases to continue to accumulate, the consequences are unavoidable: we cannot rectify the damage that has occured and it is possible that climate change will set in train a system of positive feedbacks that we cannot reverse. The world community must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by a minimum of 60 per cent, based on the IPCC analysis, and reductions in emissions across the board will be needed to achieve this. Cars are involved because they are significant emitters of carbon dioxide and produce a range of other gases that help to promote global warming. Carbon dioxide Of the gases under scrutiny, carbon dioxide is thought to have contributed 55 per cent to global warming between 1980 and 1990 (excluding the effects of water vapour). If CFCs are phased out, the relative contri-bution from CO2 could increase. Carbon dioxide levels are rising at a rate of about 0.5 per cent per year2; primarily because increased burning of coal, oil and gas is releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The amount of carbon dioxide emitted is directly related to the amount of carbon in fuel and the amount of fuel burnt. There is no add-on technology to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from vehicle exhausts; the only solution is to reduce the amount of fuel used. The average American car releases 300 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from a full, 15-gallon tank of gasoline3. The average European car produces over four tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. Because of the number of cars on the road, these emissions are a substantial part of the world total some 14 per cent of the worlds carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning comes from the tailpipes of the worlds vehicles. Add the emissions from exploration, transportation, refining and the distribution of fuel, and this figure is 15 to 20 per cent of world emissions4. CFCs Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are the major cause of the destruction of stratospheric ozone, the layer of gas that blocks harmful ultra-violet radiation from the sun reaching the earth. These chemicals are also very effective at retaining the earths heat. CFC 11 and 12, for example, have global warming potentials 3,500 and 7,300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 100 year period: currently their concentrations in the atmosphere are increasing by about 4 per cent each year5. A major source of CFCs in the atmosphere is motor-vehicle air conditioning: in 1987 approximately 48 per cent of all new cars, trucks, and buses worldwide were equipped with air conditioners. Annually, about 120,000 tonnes of CFCs are used in new vehicles and in servicing air conditioners in older vehicles. In all, these uses account for about 28 per cent of global demand for CFC-126. Most manufacturers have pledged to phase out the use of CFCs in refrigeration equipment international agreements have in any case banned their use from the end of the century but are planning to use HCFCs, which are also powerful greenhouse gases and still contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer7. Some manufacturers are planning to use newer substances called HFCs, which do not destroy the ozone layer. Mercedes Benz will be the first company to sell cars with them in the US from August 1991. Unfortunately, these chemicals are also powerful greenhouse gases and over time will contribute significantly to global warming. The IPCC commented that substances such as the HFCs and HCFCs, if used in large quantities, would contribute up to 10 per cent of global warming8. Methane Another important greenhouse gas is methane. Over a 100-year period, this has a warming potential (or capacity to contribute to global warming) 21 times greater than that of carbon dioxide. Atmospheric concen-trations of methane are increasing by 0.9 per cent per year. Although road vehicles emit only very low levels of methane into the atmosphere (about 1 per cent of UK emissions for example), vehicles facilitate the buildup of methane in the atmosphere by emitting large quantities of carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide interacts in the atmosphere with a trace chemical called the hydroxyl radical. The more carbon monoxide in the air, the more the hydroxyl radical is used up. Unfortunately, the hydroxyl radical is also the principal chemical that destroys methane and when depleted is less available for the removal of methane. Emissions of carbon monoxide thus increase global warming by removing a defence mechanism against the build-up of methane. The hydroxyl radical is also the principal agent that destroys ground-level ozone9. Ozone Ozone, one of the main components of Los Angeles-type smog, is formed by the interaction of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight. Elevated levels of ozone will be seen in or downwind of every major conurbation around the world. Higher up in the atmosphere, where ozone occurs naturally in what is known as the ozone layer, it is beneficial, protecting the earth from the suns dangerous ultraviolet rays. At lower levels, where it is often a pollutant, ozone damages human health, the environment and a wide range of natural and artificial materials. Motor vehicle share of OECD pollutant emissions Nitrogen oxides - 47% Hydrocarbons - 39% Carbon monoxide - 66% Nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons form low-lying ozone. Carbon monoxide facilitates methane buildup by knocking out hydroxyl radicals. These figures are for the OECD countries reliable global figures are not available. OECD, 199111. Ground level (tropospheric) ozone makes a significant contribution to global warming, but is very difficult to quantify. For this reason the IPCC did not include it in its estimates of the contribution that various greenhouse gases make to global climate change. Background levels of ozone are thought to have doubled over the last century, largely as a result of nitrogen oxide emissions, which are pumped out in substantial amounts from motor vehicles10. Ozone is an extremely powerful greenhouse gas (approximately 2000 times more effective than carbon dioxide in retaining the earths heat). Ozone itself is not emitted into the air but is formed from a series of chemical reactions involving nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and sunlight. The transport sector is a major source of both pollutants. Halting the greenhouse effect It is apparently too late to prevent some warming of the earths temperature, because of the pollutants already emitted into the atmosphere and the large inertia in the climate system, particularly the oceans. To prevent the situation from deteriorating further, large and immediate reductions of all the greenhouse gases are essential, and the world will have to set itself the target of moving away from the use of coal, oil, and gas. All sectors of energy use will have to reduce emissions of CO2 and other pollutants, and the transport sector is no exception. To reduce emissions of these pollutants, a number of policies will have to be adopted: polluter pays: car drivers should pay the true costs of driving, including costs of environmental damage; switching resources from the car into public transport; banning cars from city centres; ending all subsidies for the car; as interim measures: developing super-fuel-efficient cars and legislating for all new cars to be ultra-low emission or no-emission vehicles. Nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide (N20) is formed as a result of burning fossil fuels. Its global warming potential, over a 100-year period, is 290 times greater than carbon dioxide, and its atmospheric concentration is increasing by 0.25 per cent per year. Little research has been undertaken on the emissions of nitrous oxide from motor vehicles. Until recently, forestry and agriculture (especially fertilisers) were thought to be the main sources, but new research indicates that substantial emissions of nitrous oxide come from the manufacture of nylon12. 1. Climate Change, The IPCC Scientific Assessment, report prepared for IPCC by Working Group 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, Sydney, (1990). 2. As reference 1. 3. MacKenzie, J.J. and Walsh, M.P. Driving Forces: Motor Vehicle Trends and their Implications for Global Warming, Energy Strategies, and Transportation Planning, World Resources Institute, Washington DC, (1990). 4. As reference 3. 5. As reference 1. 6. As reference 3. 7. Keebler, J. Automakers Prepare Rollouts of Ozone-Safe Climate Systems, Automotive News, (11 March 1991). 8. IPCC Response Strategies Working Group report as agreed at Geneva. Quoting the IPCC Scientific Assessment (see reference 1), (8 June 1990). 9. As reference 3. 10. Photochemicals Oxidants Review Group. Report prepared by the Department of the Environment, HMSO, London, (1987). 11. Organization for Economic Development, The State of the Environment, OECD, Paris, (1991). 12. Environmental Data Services Ltd, Report 194, ENDS, London, (March 1991). CHAPTER TWO AIR POLLUTION During the past 20 years there has been growing evidence that atmospheric pollutants are being transported over large distances by global atmospheric circulation. In particular, aerosol particles that clearly come from automobile and diesel exhaust and industrial operations in the middle latitudes have been collected in winter in the North Polar Region. Observations show a marked increase in Arctic pollution since 1950. OECD, 19911 In addition to playing a considerable role in global warming, vehicle emissions have a major impact on human health and the environment. The average car emits a cocktail of more than a 1000 pollutants, which interact in ways that are not fully understood. The resulting pollution affects people and the environment in urban areas, before travelling to rural areas and neighbouring countries, where human health and environmental impacts also occur. Different parts of the pollution cycle are given different names smog, urban pollution, acid rain, low-lying ozone and often there is a combined effect between pollution from cars and from other sources, such as fossil-fuelled power stations. The car is the prime source of much of this pollution, however. Incomplete combustion of petrol, evaporation, and the use of additives cause most of the problem. Over the last century, developments in motor vehicle engineering have reduced emissions from the car, but the number of cars on the road has soared and the total amount of pollutants emitted has thus greatly increased. There has been growing concern over urban carbon monoxide levels and photochemical (Los Angeles type) smog, leading to considerable efforts to cut the pollution coming out of tailpipes. The culmination of this has been the development of the catalytic converter, which does cut emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides, but needs regular inspection and maintenance to work effectively. Studies in the US show that half the carbon monoxide from cars comes from just 10 per cent of the vehicles2. In the UK, a similar study showed that over half the toxic pollution is caused by under 17 per cent of vehicles3. The US, being the first country to experience large-scale car use, was also the first to encounter pollution problems. High levels of pollution were first observed in Los Angeles in the 1940s, and over the next decade it was shown that car exhausts were the main source4. A number of pollutants were involved. Lead Much of the early development of automobile engines was concerned with increasing the compression ratio and hence the power output of the engine. The limiting factor was the quality of fuel available. For General Motors, intensive research paid off when, in a series of experiments between 1916 and 1922, one of its researchers discovered the properties of tetraethyl lead. As an additive, it would enhance the octane rating of the fuel. GM introduced a leaded premium grade fuel in 1923, but by October 1924 five of the 49 workers in the New Jersey plant producing the lead additive had died, and another 35 were suffering serious neurological disorders. Reporters discovered cover-ups of deaths in other factories. In the face of industry arguments that oil supplies were limited ... most public health workers believed that there should be overwhelming evidence that leaded gasoline actually harmed people before it was banned5. After a short ban, increasing oil prices allowed leaded petrol back on to the market, subject to regulations. But the health damage continued. Lead is extremely toxic and it can affect almost any organ in the body. When people are exposed to low levels over a long period of time, the most common effects are on the nervous system and blood. Since the late 1970s there has been growing evidence that even very low levels of lead can impair the mental abilities of children6. Recent research has suggested that seven out of ten children in Mexico City have had their development stunted by lead poisoning from cars7, although it may be difficult to separate lead exposure from other factors. The situation varies around the world. Latin America, most of Asia, and Africa continue to use leaded petrol. Lead is not essential as a fuel additive: Europe is in the process of phasing it out; North America and Japan phased lead out of petrol during the 1970s, as it would have destroyed the catalytic converters being introduced. The result was a 94 per cent fall in US lead emissions in the ten years after catalytic converters were introduced in cars8. In the European Community, where car emission reduction has been less of a priority, permitted levels of lead in gasoline were initially reduced from 0.45 grammes per litre (g/l) to 0.4 g/l in 1981, and then to 0.15 g/l in 1985. Since 1990, all new cars have to run on unleaded petrol, and concentrations of lead in air are falling. However, leaded petrol is still being sold in substantial quantities globally, in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe, and will continue to cause health problems in these regions. World Health Organisation guidelines for Europe, for Lead in Air9: Time-weighted average in mircrogrammes per cubic metre Averaging time 0.5-1.0 ug/m3 1 year This means that the maximum exposure to lead should be 0.5 to 1 microgrammes of lead per cubic metre of air, experienced over a one-year period. Lead is, however, only one of the pollutants emitted during car use that affects human health. It has been estimated that about one in five of the UK population belongs to groups sensitive to air pollution. These include infants under two years old, the elderly, pregnant women and those suffering from a range of respiratory and heart complaints10. Air pollution affects young children because they have not developed sufficiently robust immune systems and because relative to their small body weight, the amount of pollution is proportionately more dangerous than for an adult. Benzene Benzene occurs naturally in crude oil. In the European Community there is a mandatory limit of 5 per cent by volume in gasoline, although in the past considerably higher levels of benzene have been present on occasion. Below this limit there are wide variations, depending mainly on the type of crude oil and on the particular refining process used. In California a benzene limit of 0.8 per cent will be adopted in 1993. To improve the properties of premium unleaded gasoline some producers, depending on the crude oil source, are increasing the amount of benzene in the fuel by blending in high benzene crudes. The major sources of benzene in air are emissions from motor vehicles and evaporation losses during the handling, distribution, and storage of gasoline, although indoors the major source is cigarette smoking. Levels are higher in urban areas than in rural locations and at their highest near petrol stations, petrol storage tanks and benzene producing/handling industries. Benzene is a proven carcinogen, and several studies on benzene-exposed workers have revealed a statistically significant association between acute leukaemia and occupational exposure to benzene11. Catalytic converters can reduce the emissions of benzene from exhaust pipes, but do not reduce evaporative emissions. There are four major sources of evaporative emissions of benzene and other hydrocarbons from petrol engines: during refuelling (fuelling losses); from the engine when it is in operation (running losses); when the engine has stopped, but the engine is still warm (hot soak losses); through the effect of the sun and other external temperature variations on the fuel and vapour in the fuel tank. Evaporative emissions can be reduced by using a fuel vapour collection system or carbon canister. These devices have been in use in the USA for several years and from the end of 1992, a small canister will be required on vehicles in the European Community. Evaporative losses that occur when filling-up at a petrol station can be reduced either by using a larger canister on the car or by fitting fuel pumps with a vacuum recovery system. The oil and motor industries are at loggerheads over which approach to adopt. The oil industry would prefer larger canisters on cars, the motor manufacturers want to fit the system at petrol pumps. The specially designed nozzles for gasoline pumps have been adopted in some parts of the USA. WHO guidelines for Europe for benzene in air12: No safe level for airborne benzene can be recommended, as benzene is carcinogenic to humans and there is no known safe threshold level. Carbon monoxide Cars are the major source of carbon monoxide, accounting for over 65 per cent of emissions in OECD countries13. Described by the UK Department of the Environment as one of the most directly toxic substances14, carbon monoxide affects human health by impairing the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood resulting in impaired perception, slowing reflexes, and drowsiness. It can increase the occurrence of headaches and affects the central nervous system, the heart, and the transference of blood around the body. In large doses it is fatal. Catalytic converters have been shown to reduce emissions of carbon monoxide by 80 per cent under test conditions. But despite their use for nearly two decades in the USA, high levels of carbon monoxide continue to be a problem in urban areas. This is probably due to a combination of very high emissions when catalysts are cold and ineffective, complete catalyst failure, and deliberate misfuelling or tampering. In Colorado new cars are built to meet an emission limit for carbon monoxide of only 3.4 grammes each mile But according to recent in-service testing, the average Denver car currently emits 50 grammes per mile15. If these high emissions are to be curtailed, better inspection and maintenance provisions will have to be legislated. Changing the way in which cars are certified would also help. A Japanese car certified under the Japanese procedure, which has a maximum speed of 110 kph, when tested on UK roads was found to have excessive emissions of carbon monoxide at higher speeds and in fact produced more carbon monoxide than a non-catalyst car16. Manufacturers commonly design engine management systems to perform well under the certification test, although under actual driving conditions the amount of emissions may be radically different. WHO Guidelines for Europe for carbon monoxide in air17: Time-weighted average Averaging time in milligrams per cubic metre 100 mg/m3 15 minutes 60 mg/m3 30 minutes 30 mg/m3 1 hour exposure at above concentrations to be no longer than the indicated times and not to be repeated within 8 hours 10 mg/m3 8 hours Nitrogen oxides Nitrogen oxides is an umbrella term for nitrogen dioxide and nitric oxide. Most of the nitrogen oxides emitted from cars is as nitric oxide, but this is rapidly converted to nitrogen dioxide in the air, and so these pollutants are generally considered together. In OECD countries, 47 per cent of nitrogen oxides emissions come from road vehicles, in about equal amounts from cars and heavy goods vehicles. Nitrogen dioxide is more toxic than nitric oxide and has been shown to have an adverse effect on both plants and human health. It reduces growth and induces lesions in sensitive crops, while in humans it can irritate the respiratory tract, reduce lung function and may increase susceptibility to viral infections. Nitrogen oxides play a major role in the formation of acid rain and in Europe are thought to contribute up to half of the acidification of rain. They are also important contributors to the formation of ground-level ozone. Under test conditions catalysts have been shown to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 95 per cent, but in actual use emissions depend on speed. Minimum emissions occur between 40 and 60 kph, with emissions increasing as speed builds up. WHO guidelines for Europe for nitrogen dioxide in air18: Time-weighted average in microgrammes per cubic metre Averaging time 400 g/m3 1 hour 150 g/m3 24 hours Hydrocarbons The unburnt and partly burnt fuels emitted from a cars exhaust are known as hydrocarbons or volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Road traffic is responsible for about 39 per cent of hydrocarbon emissions in OECD countries and gasoline engines emit more than equivalent diesel engines. Some hydrocarbons, eg benzene, are carcinogenic. Others cause drowsiness, eye irritation and coughing. Hydrocarbons cause environmental damage through reacting with nitrogen oxides to form tropospheric ozone. Ozone Damage to vegetation caused by photochemical smog was first documented in the Los Angeles area in the 1940s. Subsequently, visible damage to crops caused by ozone was identified in many other regions of the US, where it is considered to be the single most important pollutant affecting vegetation, resulting in huge economic losses. It is also thought that ozone pollution is one of the contributing factors in the widespread forest damage seen over much of Europe and North America. Photochemical smog causes eye irritation, headaches, coughing, impaired lung function and eye, nose and throat irritation. Asthmatics and children are most at risk, while the chance of experiencing adverse health effects increases if under-taking heavy exercise during a period of elevated ozone levels. According to the executive director of the Southern California Air Quality Management Plan, almost everyone in the South California Basin is affected by air pollution; particularly schoolchildren, who suffer substantially diminished lung function compared to children elsewhere19. Post mortems of apparently healthy young accident victims in California have shown lung lesions. Background levels of tropospheric ozone are thought to have doubled in the northern hemisphere over the past century20. Photochemical smog pollution by ozone and NOx. Cases of urban-scale photochemical smog have been observed for several decades in large cities throughout the world. But it is only since the early 1980s that evidence has been produced to show that ozone and its precursors can also be transported and accumulate over large areas ranging from several hundred to several thousand square kilometres. Large-scale ozone pollution has mostly been observed in North America and Europe, especially in the summer, but attention is increasingly focussed on the rise in long-term ozone levels and background concentrations... The ecological consequences of high ozone levels include damage to all types of vegetation, including agricultural crops where significant economic losses may be incurred. In California, it is estimated that ozone causes annual losses of up to 20 per cent of important crops like cotton and grapes. Current levels of ozone in Europe and North America frequently exceed WHO ceilings for both short- and long-term ozone concentrations by a wide margin on a large scale. In addition, ozone levels ... are thought to have doubled during this century. Both NOx and VOC contribute to the generation of ozone: NOx levels in many parts of the world fall into the range where a reduction might lead to a commensurate decrease in ozone concentrations. A reduction in NOx and VOC levels, through stringent emission controls of all motor vehicles, would not only curtail the incidence of summer-time smog but also bring down long-term levels of photo-oxidants in general OECD, 1991 21 WHO guidelines for Europe for ozone in air22: Time-weighted average in microgrammes per cubic metre Averaging time 150-200 g/m3 1 hour 100-120 g/m3 8 hours Diesel particulates Particulates are fine particles, such as soot, that result from the incomplete combustion of fuel. They are mainly tiny particles of carbon, on to which potentially toxic chemicals are absorbed. The particles are small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs when breathed in. Diesel engines produce considerably more particulars than gasoline engines. Particulates in the air can aggravate respiratory diseases such as bronchitis and asthma. But possibly the most worrying aspect of particulate emissions from diesel vehicles is that they are carriers of cancer-causing agents, particularly polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). According to the World Health Organisation, owing to its carcinogenicity, no safe level of PAH can be recommended, and recently the International Agency for Research on Cancer has concluded that there is sufficient evidence to classify whole diesel exhaust as a probably carcinogen23. Aldehydes Aldehydes is a group of chemicals emitted from car exhausts as a result of incomplete fuel combustion. They generally have pungent odours and are probably responsible for much of the smell associated with traffic, particularly from diesel vehicles. Aldehydes affect human health. One of the most common aldehydes, formaldehyde, can cause irritation of the eyes, nose , and throat, together with sneezing, coughing, nausea and breathing difficulties. Children are most sensitive. There is evidence to suggest that formaldehyde is carcinogenic in animals but there is at present insufficient evidence of this in humans24. While diesel engines emit more aldehydes than gasoline engines, the worth offenders are vehicles using methanol. Typical emissions from methanol cars are two to six times greater than those from gasoline cars25. TRACE METALS The next area for concern is trace metals. A complex mix of these is emitted from car engines, including nickel, chromium, cadmium, arsenic, manganese and beryllium. Some heavy metals, such as arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and lead, can be highly toxic at low concentrations. The depositing of heavy metals changes the chemistry and biology of soils and their build-up in ecosystems can affect the health of plants and animals. Metals enter the food chain through cows milk and fish and can cause serious health problems. The principal source of metal emissions in industrialised areas are smelters, power plants, waste incinerators and traffic. Heavy metals can remain in the atmosphere for up to ten days and are capable of being transmitted up to 2,000 kilometres26. Solutions for Air Pollution A car is a machine that emits pollutants. Much of the air pollution experienced around the world has been caused by the manufacture and use of millions of pollution-producing machines. California, due to a combination of its climate and topography, but particularly because of its very high car ownership and usage, suffers from higher and more persistent levels of traffic pollution than anywhere else in the word. On one in three days, the national air quality standard for ozone is exceeded. Californias problems have forced it to lead the world in pollution reduction technology - three-way catalysts were introduced there a decade ago. The emission standards enforced in the USA in 1983 are to be adopted by the European Community in 1992, for new cars only. Meanwhile the USA is moving ahead in its control technology. More stringent standards were agreed in November 1990, and will be phased in over three years. The new Clean Air Act includes a second phase which will further reduce these new standards. California will adopt the new limits for new models from 1993, with at least 10 per cent of new vehicles having to meet stricter limits. By 1997, 25 per cent of new cars sold in the state will be low emission vehicles with even stricter standards. New technology will have to be developed to meet these standards. In an attempt to keep emissions at a low level, catalyst lifetime expectations will be doubled to 100,000 miles. On-board diagnostic systems which alert the driver if the cars anti-pollution system needs repair have been fitted to Californian cars since 198427. By the middle of the 1990s, a small percentage of new cars will have to be no-emission cars. The technologies for pollution reduction vary around the globe. California leads, with the USA, Japan, and Canada following . Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Australia are some way behind. The European Community countries come next, about ten years behind the USA. After this come Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia. It would be possible for all car markets in the world to have standards as strict as Californias, but, even so, Californias degraded air quality shows that the number of cars swamps even these technological improvements. Strict standards and regulation of the vehicle fleet may be able to partially improve the quality of the air we breathe. The other environmental impacts of the car, however, would still occur. 1. Climate Change, The IPCC Scientific Assessment, report prepared for IPCC by Working Group 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, Sydney, (1990). 2. As reference 1. 3. MacKenzie, J.J. and Walsh, M.P. Driving Forces: Motor Vehicle Trends and their Implications for Global Warming, Energy Strategies, and Transportation Planning, World Resources Institute, Washington DC, (1990). 4. As reference 3. 5. As reference 1. 6. As reference 3. 7. Keebler, J. Automakers Prepare Rollouts of Ozone-Safe Climate Systems, Automotive News, (11 March 1991). 8. IPCC Response Strategies Working Group report as agreed at Geneva. Quoting the IPCC Scientific Assessment (see reference 1), (8 June 1990). 9. As reference 3. 10. Photochemicals Oxidants Review Group. Report prepared by the Department of the Environment, HMSO, London, (1987). 11. Organization for Economic Development, The State of the Environment, OECD, Paris, (1991). 12. Environmental Data Services Ltd, Report 194, ENDS, London, (March 1991). Air Pollution from road traffic Substance Source WHO limits Health effects Environmental effects Carbon monoxide 90%from 100mg/m3 Fatal in large doses; Contributes to all of transport over 15 minutes aggravates heart global warming sector, 65% (86 parts per disorders; can affect by removing from motor million/ppm) the central nervous hydroxyl radical vehicles system; impairs from the air (OECD) 10mg/m3 oxygen carrying over 8 hours capacity of blood, (8.6 ppm) resulting in impaired perception, slowing reflexes, drowsiness Nitrogen oxides 47% from (for NO2) 400 Irritation of Acid rain, indirect vehicle g/m3 over 1hr, respiratory tract, contribution to emissions (208 parts per reduced lung global warming (OECD) billion/ppb) function, increased through formation susceptibility to viral of ground level 150 g/m3 over infections ozone (smog) 24 hours (78 ppb) Ozone Interaction of 150-200 g/m3 Eye, nose and throat Damage to vegetation hydrocarbons over 1hr irritation; risks to and crops; and nitrogen (75-100 ppb) asthmatics, children contributes to global oxides in the and those involved warming presence of in heavy exercise sunlight Lead Petrol additive 0.5-1.0 g/m3 Extremely toxic: Remains in soil, over 1 year affects nervous from which it system and blood; reaches the can impair mental food chain development of children Hydrocarbons Up to 50% No general limit Drowsiness, Indirect contribution from vehicle specified eye irritation, to global warming emissions coughing through formation (excluding of ground level methane) ozone (smog) Benzene Vehicle WHOallows no Carcinogenic None identified emissions, safe level to date evaporative petrol losses (also cigarette smoking) Aldehydes Vehicle No limit Irritation of eyes, None identified emissions specified nose and throat; to date sneezing, coughing, nausea, breathing difficulties; carcinogen in animals animals 1. Organization for Economic Development. The State of the Environment, OECD, Paris, (1991). 2. Stedman, D.H. On-Road Carbon Monoxide Emission, Env. Sc Tech, Vol 23, (1989). 3. Royal Automobile Club. RAC Study Casts New Light on Car Pollution, Press release, RAC, London, (1990). 4. eg Haagen-Smit, A.J. Chemistry and Physiology of Los Angeles Smog. Ind. Eng. Chem., 44, pp 1342-1346, (1952). 5. Quoted from A Gift from God?: the public health controversy over leaded gasoline during the 1920s, The American Journal of Health, Vol 75, No 4. 6. World Health Organization. Air Quality Guidelines for Europe, WHO Regional Publications European Series No 23, Copenhagen, (1987). 7. Renner, M. Rethinking the Role of the Automobile, Worldwatch Institute, Washington, (1988). 8. As reference 6. 9. As reference 6. 10. eg Holman, C. Air Pollution and Health, Friends of the Earth, London, (1989). 11. As reference 5. 12. As reference 6. 13. As reference 1. 14. Department of the Environment. UK Digest of Environmental Protection and Water Statistics, No 12, HMSO, London, (1989). 15. As reference 2. 16. Davies, G.P. and Pearce, T. Exhaust Emissions at High Speeds from Advanced Technology Cars, Transport and Road Research Laboratory, Research Report 243. Crowthorne, UK, (1990). 17. As reference 6. 18. As reference 6. 19. Lents, J. The South California Air Quality Management Plan, paper presented to The Route Ahead, a conference organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature, UK, (April/May 1990). 20. UK Photochemical Oxidants Review Group. Ozone in the United Kingdom, Department of the Environment, HMSO, London, (1987). 21. As reference 1. 22. As reference 6. 23. International Agency for Research on Cancer. Diesel and Gasoline Engine Exhausts and Some Nitroarenes, IARC Monograph on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, No 46. World Health Organisation, Lyons, (1989). 24. As reference 6. 25. Sierra Research Incorporated. Potential Emissions and Air Quality Effects of Alternative Fuels Final Report, SRI, Sacramento, California, (1989). 26. As reference 1. 27. Henry, J. Lack of Smog Diagnostics Keeps Cars Out of California, Automotive News, (3 December 1990). Chapter 3 finding, transporting and using oil The vast majority of the worlds cars run on gasoline or diesel. These are derived from petroleum, more usually called oil. The exploration, extraction, distribution, refining and use of oil are all major industries in their own right. Oil was first successfully drilled in 18591. For the next 40 years, it was used as kerosene for lighting, and the gasoline was regarded as a by-product. After the turn of the century, the increased use of the automobile meant that gasoline became more and more sought after. Companies intrigued, monarchs bargained and nations went to war over the fuel. The Gulf War of 1991 was the latest in a long line of conflicts motivated by the desire to secure the supply of oil. If the nineteenth century was the age of coal, the twentieth belongs to oil. Transport, in the shape of cars, buses and trucks, is using up an increasing amount of the worlds oil and its energy. By 1985 transport used 39 per cent of Japans oil, 44 per cent of Western Europes, and 63 per cent of the USAs consumption2. The USAs figures are especially troublesome. Since 1976 the country has used more oil each year for transport than it has produced. Imports now account for 40 per cent of use, and are one-third of the nations trade deficit3. US demands for cheap oil supplies, primarily for car use, lie behind the increasingly vigorous pressure to explore and drill in environmentally sensitive areas. In spite of the outstanding value of fisheries, estuaries, coral reefs, wildlife habitat and Native rights, the US government plans to offer virtually the entire outer continental shelf (OCS) from the Atlantic to the Arctic Ocean for offshore oil and gas development. The government estimates that the undeveloped US OCS and the rare Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska combined would yield only two years worth of oil at the current US rate of consumption4. The windfall profits created by the oil price hike during the Gulf crisis have given the oil companies an extra $4 billion5, which is partly being diverted into exploration budgets. There are proposals to drill around the coast of Australia, in the Ecuador Amazon River Basin and in various tropical forest areas. No environment is too pristine, according to the logic of the oil companies, to be preserved from the drill. Research is continuing all round the globe. Oil extraction is a dangerous and polluting business. Land-based installations can be the source of large quantities of air pollution some of the Kuwaiti oil wells were regarded with caution by engineers before the Gulf War, because of the choking sulphur emissions that they produce7. Oil wells are also extremely vulnerable in the event of war. The torching of the Kuwaiti oil fields was not the first time an oil field had been set alight during a time of hostilities (see pages 40 and 41). Proven reserves of oil worldwide 1986 700,000,000,000 barrels (700 billion) 1989 1,011,800,000,000 barrels - an increase of 42%. BP, 1990 6 Oil spills Marine-based platforms have been the source of many explosions and oil spills. In 1989, the UK alone recorded 301 oil spillages from offshore installations and on the UK continental shelf8. In 1991, the Oil Spill Intelligence Report recorded that, globally, 31.75 million gallons of oil (around 100,000 tonnes) were spilt in 19909. However, the 1989 high spillage rate was more than double the 1990 figure: half of this quantity came from three large spills: the Exxon Valdez (10.7 million gallons in Prince William Sound, March 1989); the Kharg 5 (20 million gallons, December 1989, off the coast of Morocco); the Aragon (7.35 million gallons, off Madeira, December 1989). The Exxon Valdez was internationally notorious because of the sensitivity of the ecosystem in which it occurred. In terms of volume of spills from marine or land-based sources, however, the Exxon spill was not unusual in the last twelve years (see table overleaf). The language of oil Oil is described in different units: barrels, tonnes, long tons, short tons, imperial gallons or US gallons. US UK metric 1 gallon = 0.8327 gallon = 3.785 litres 1 (short) 0.8928 (long) = 0.9072 ton = ton tonnes 1 barrel* = 1 barrel = 1 barrel 1 barrel = 0.134 tons = 0.136 tonnes *1 barrel is equal to 42 US gallons or 35 imperial (UK) gallons After the Exxon Valdez spill, Exxon representatives commented that the grounding was unprecedented in scale11. In terms of the amount of oil spilt, this was not true. Because of the nature of the area in which the disaster occurred, however, it appears to have killed more wildlife than any other spill in history: an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 sea birds, thousands of marine mammals and hundreds of bald eagles12. In villages scattered along a thousand miles of the affected coastlines, the spill devastated subsistence hunting, fishing, and gathering essential parts of the rural economy and Native American culture. The sense of national urgency increased as a swarm of smaller spills followed the Exxon Valdez disaster. The World Prodigy ran aground off Providence, Rhode Island: an Exxon pipeline spilled oil into Arthur Kill between New York and New Jersey; the American Trader punctured its hull near Huntingon Beach, California; the Mega Borg caught fire and spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico; and vessel collisions in the Houston ship channel produced multiple spills. Even worse, this series of spills was not an anomaly. According to the Alaska Oil Spill Commission, oil discharges the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster occur somewhere in the world once a year. On average, a spill of a million gallons occurs every month13. Oil spills greater than 10 million gallons 1978 - 1990 Volume Volume Date Source million gallons barrels 140 3,333,333 June 79/March 80 Ixtoc I, Mexico 80 1,904,762 Feb/ all 83 Nowruz oil field, Persian Gulf 79 1,880,952 Aug 83 Castillo de Bellver, South Africa 69 1,642,857 March 78 Amoco Cadiz, off Brittany, France 49 1,166,667 July 79 Atlantic Empress/A. Captain, Tobago 42 1,000,000 Aug 80/Jan 81 D-103 Libya Well, Libya 37 880,952 Feb 80 Irenes Serenade, Greece 31 738,095 Aug 81 Kuwait National Petrol Tank, Kuwait 29 690,476 Nov 79 Independenta, Istanbul, Turkey 28 666,667 May 78 Well No 126, Ahnazin, Iran 24 571,429 July 79 BP Tank, Forcados, Nigeria 21 500,000 Aug/Oct 85 Nova, Kharg Island, Gulf 20 476,190 Dec 89 Kharg 5, off Morocco 20 476,190 Dec 78 BP/Shell Depot, Zimbabwe 16 380,952 Jan 83 Assimi, off Oman 15 357,143 June 78 Tohoku Oil Co, Sendal, Japan 15 357,143 Dec 78 Andros Patria, Cape Villano, Spain 14 333,333 Dec 83 Pericles GC, Qatar 11 261,905 Dec 80 Juan A Lavalleja, Algeria 10.7 254,761 March 89 Exxon Valdez, Alaska, USA 10.7 254,761 Nov 79 Burmah Agate, Texas, USA 10.7 254,761 Oct 78 Turkish Petroleum, Mandarin, Turkey 10.6 252,380 April 88 Athenian Venture, off Canada 10.5 250,000 Dec 78 Storage Tank, Benuelan, Puerto Rico 10.4 247,619 Oct 86 PEMEX Well, Mexico 10.1 240,476 April 86 Texaco Tank, Panama Oil Spill Intelligence Report 10 Exxon claimed to have spent more than 2 billion dollars on the Alaskan clean-up programme, which was nevertheless criticised for being inadequate. The statistics show that spills of this nature will continue to occur as long as oil is shipped around the world in these quantities: if the spills occur in remote areas, there tends to be less publicity though the environmental damage that occurs may be equally devastating. Prior to the Exxon Valdez, one of the better-known disasters was the Amoco Cadiz, which sank off the coast of France in 1978, killing 30,000 seabirds as well as 230,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish along 150 kms of the French coastline14. Approximately 1,500,000 barrels of oil leaked from the ship to cause this degree of damage. In April 1991, a sister ship of the Amoco Cadiz, the Haven, caught fire and sank in the Bay of Genoa, causing a 15-kilometre slick. At the time of the accident, the Haven was carrying 434,000 barrels of oil15. The Exxon Valdez disaster was caused by some 260,000 barrels. Finally, the oil slick during the Gulf War is still being assessed, but at the time of writing (April 1991) was considered to have run to at least 1.5 million barrels. According to Saudi officials and foreign advisers, it may eventually prove to be between four million and seven million barrels, making it the worlds largest spill. An estimated 126,000 gallons of oil were pouring into the Gulf every day, along 250 miles of coast. The US Coast Guard considers any release over 10,000 gallons to be a major spill17. World oil trade figures (barrels traded daily) 1980 31,935,000 1981 28,655,000 1982 24,565,000 1983 24,355,000 1984 24,750,000 1985 24,120,000 1986 26,265,000 1987 24,590,000 1988 27,867,000 1989 30,272,000 The lower figures in the mid-1980s reflect the oil price rise of 1983, and the higher figures towards the end of the decade reflect a drop in the price of oil. The increase between 1987 and 1989 is over 23 per cent. The biggest single market is from the Middle East to Europe. BP, 199016 Non-accidental pollution The figures for oil pollution of the sea vary. Because the causes are widespread and different, reporting is not very rigorous and a number of sources are difficult to quantify. The OECD notes that most estimates cite a total input of oil to the worlds oceans of some 3 to 4 million tonnes per year: about half of this comes from marine sources, with the rest getting into the oceans from the land18. Shipping accidents are actually a small source when compared to industrial discharges, sewage disposal and deliberate dumping at sea by ships19. This occurs when ships take on sea water as ballast and then discharge the oil-contaminated water back into the sea; from deliberate washing-out of oil tanks prior to the taking on of new oil; from bilge pumping; and from tank washing before maintenance. The US National Academy of Science has calculated the sources of oil pollution of the sea: of an estimated 3.5 million tonnes of oil, 1.84 million tonnes are thought to be of marine origin. Accidents account for less than a quarter of this figure, with non accidental marine transport accounting for twice as much pollution as the accidents20. The figures for land-based oil pollution are also interesting: some 1.7 million tonnes of oil enter the seas from the land, with 1.4 million tonnes coming from urban and industrial sources. 0.3 million tonnes comes from atmospheric pollution almost as much as from oil spillages at sea. A large part of this atmospheric pollution is pollution from traffic; the industrial and urban sources include oil refineries and other industries associated with oil. A substantial proportion of oil pollution comes from run-off from rivers and city drains. More oil enters the oceans from automobile exhausts and from oil-changes by city garages that are then dumped down the drains, than from any other source21. Environmental impacts A distinctive environmental effect of the oil industry is that it results in spillage at all stages of production and transport; once oil is spilt into the environment, it has a direct and damaging impact. oil wells go out of control, releasing oil on land or in the sea; crude oil tankers have accidents, or release part of their cargo deliberately in tank washings, operational discharges or during loading and unloading; storage tanks on shore leak; refineries discharge their effluents into rivers and the sea; oil escapes from pipelines, tankers, or road vehicles. The leakage or spillage of oil degrades habitats; damages wildlife, especially sea birds and marine mammals; contaminates the food chain; and affects local fish schools. Overall, there may be a long-term effect of modifying the marine ecosystem and thus reducing the diversity of species. Oil does not have to be spilt, however, to cause pollution. The business of finding, extracting, transporting, refining and using oil is enormous. Total air pollution produced should not just be assessed as the pollution coming out of tailpipes (see Part 2, Chapter 2 on Air Pollution), but as air pollution produced by the whole industry. Oil wars There is an environmental impact that does not relate directly to spillage or other forms of pollution: the question of security of supply. The industrialised countries have framed their lifestyles round a fuel that is mainly obtained from other parts of the world (primarily the Gulf); they are so dependent on this supply that they will go to war to protect it. Wars over oil, or in which oil has been a key component, have featured regularly in the twentieth century. The firing of the Kuwaiti oil fields is a tactic, deplorable though it is, that has been practised on a number of occasions. And the Gulf War, motivated by the need to maintain a secure supply of oil, is the latest in a series of such conflicts. Total pollution from the transport sector The OECD estimates that a high proportion of pollution in industrialised countries comes from the transport sector, which includes the oil cycle and also the manufacturing process for the cars and trucks that use the oil, and produces: about 90 per cent of all emissions of carbon monoxide; about 50 per cent of all emissions of nitrogen oxides; at least 50 per cent of all atmospheric lead emissions; around 80 per cent of all benzene emissions; 50 per cent of all hydrocarbon emissions in urban areas; 25 per cent of the worlds total emissions of carbon dioxide. OECD, 199123 1905 First Russian revolution: series of fires of oil buildings and installations, as Moslem Tatars rose up against the oil industry in Baku, Russia. Chief socialist organiser in the area was Joseph Stalin. The flames from the burning oil wells and derricks leaped up into the awful pall of smoke which hung over the inferno, wrote one observer. The smoke was so thick it obliterated the sun. 1916 Fuel blockade choked off oil supplies to Germany except from one country Rumania. A British team set fire to the entire Rumanian oilfield prior to the German invasion of Rumania, plugging wells, dynamiting derricks, smashing pipelines, exploding refineries. Seventy refineries and 800,000 tonnes of crude were destroyed. 1917 German diesel-powered submarines succeeded in sinking large numbers of Allied fuel tankers. The Germans are succeeding, the American ambassador wrote to the USA, They have lately sunk so many fuel ships, that this country may soon be in a very perilous situation even the Grand Fleet may not have enough fuel. Pleasure driving in Britain was banned. Shortages were eventually overcome with aid from USA. Oil squeeze on Germany maintained. 1918 Turks attacked Baku, trying to get control of the oil fields. The British sent troops to help withstand the attack. The Germans were denied oil at an important stage in the conflict: capitulated in November 1918. Ten days later, Lord Curzon declared, The Allied cause had floated to victory on a wave of oil. 1936 Mussolinis invasion of Ethiopia provoked a threatened oil embargo, which didnt materialise. Nevertheless, Hitler was persuaded of the dangers of dependence on foreign oil and started a large programme of synthetic fuels. By 1940 this was supplying 46 per cent of total oil supply and 95 per cent of all aviation fuel. 1939 Nazi-Soviet pact signed. Oil imports from Soviet Union totalled 30 per cent of total imports. 1940 US instituted a partial embargo on oil shipments to Japan after the invasion of China. To protect oil fields in Far East from Japanese attack, USA switched its fleet from Southern California to Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. 1941 US oil embargo of Japan became total. Hitler invaded Soviet Union, trying to capture Baku oilfields and protect Rumanian oilfields from possible Soviet attack. Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, invaded Malaya, prepared to invade oil fields in East Indies. Japanese neglected to bomb oil storage tanks at Pearl. All of the oil for the Fleet was in surface tanks, said Commander in Chief of US Pacific Fleet. Had the Japanese destroyed the oil, it would have prolonged the war for another two years. 1942 Rommels drive across North Africa halted by lack of fuel. British destroyed four petrol-carrying ships in Tobruk. Rommel wrote, In attacking our petrol transport, the British were able to hit us in a part of our machine on whose proper functioning the whole of the rest depended. Japan marched into East Indies. Shell destroyed the refinery at Balikpapan, in Borneo, and other oil facilities nearby. Stanvac destroyed installations in Sumatra. Despite this, Japan got the installations working again and solved its short-term oil supply problems. 1944 Russians captured Ploesti oil fields in Rumania, depriving Hitler of major source of crude oil. US decided to bomb all Germanys synthetic fuel factories. The primary strategic aim of the United States Strategic Air Forces is now to deny oil to the enemy armed forces. The Luftwaffe was now operating on one-tenth of the minimum required gasoline. Commander of German fighter forces commented, From September on, the shortage of fuel was unbearable. Air operations were thereby made virtually impossible. US submarine campaign started restricting oil supply to Japan. In the Marianas campaign, the Japanese battle fleet did not join the action not enough fuel. 1945 Shortages of fuel meant Japanese planes could fly only two hours a month. German aviation fuel production amounted to 0.05 per cent of the figure a year earlier. German trucks were seen being towed by oxen. Loss of fuel crippled both the German and Japanese forces. 1956 Two-thirds of Europes petroleum passed through the Suez Canal, but most of the income from the Canal went to European shareholders. In July, the Egyptian army seized control of it. In October, Israel, UK and France invaded the Canal Zone. Nasser ordered the sinking of scores of ships in the Canal, thus cutting the supply of oil to Europe. Saudi Arabia instituted an oil embargo against Britain and France. Acts of sabotage in Kuwait shut down the Kuwaiti oil supply system. The USA considered oil sanctions against Britain and France. In November, UK and France had to announce the withdrawal of their forces. Ownership and control of the Canal passed to Egypt. 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait, using Kuwait overproduction of oil as a pretext. Iraq was bidding to be the worlds leading oil power, dominating both the Arab world and the Persian Gulf. When the war for the oilfields was being lost by Saddam Hussein, he responded in traditional fashion by torching between 500 and 800 oil wells. Extracted from The Prize, Daniel Yergin24 1. Yergin, D. The Prize, Simon and Schuster, New York, (1991). 2. Renner, M. Rethinking the Role of the Automobile, Worldwatch Institute, Washington,(1988). 3. National Resources Defence Council. Quoted in UK Gas-guzzlers Worsen Oil Crisis in US, New Scientist, (18 August 1990). 4. Smith, D. Personal Communication, Greenpeace USA, (May 1991). 5. Tran, M. Oil firms try to avert public wrath at Gulf profit bonanza, The Guardian, London, (30 January 1991). Solomon, C. and Sullivan, A. Big profits for Big Oil Prove a Big Pain, The Wall Street Journal, Europe, (8 January 1991). 6. British Petroleum. Statistical View of World Energy, London, (1990). 7. Financial Times, London (13 February 1991). 8. Advisory Committee on Pollution of the Sea. Survey of Oil Pollution around the Coasts of the United Kingdom, (1989). 9. Cutter Information Corp. Oil Spill Intelligence Report, (21 February 1991). 10. As reference 9. 11. Maki, A.W. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: initial environmental impact assessment, Env. Sci. Technol, vol 25, no 1, (1991). 12. Kelso, D.D. and Kendziorek, M. Alaskas Response to the Exxon Valdex Oil Spill, Env. Sci. Technol, vol 25, no 1, (1991). 13. As reference 12. 14. Elsworth, S. A Dictionary of the Environment, Paladin, London, (1990). 15. Financial Times, London, (15 April 1991). 16. As reference 6. 17. Washington Post, Washington, (8 April 1991). 18. Organization for Economic Development. The State of the Envioronment, OECD, Paris, (1991). 19. As reference 18. 20. As reference 18. 21. As reference 18. 22. As reference 18. 23. As reference 18. 24. As reference 1. Chapter Four resource costs of making cars Car-making spans many of the worlds extraction and manufacturing industries. Isolating the auto component is very difficult, but it is clear that the process of assembling cars involves substantial environmental degradation. Among known polluting processes are: Iron and steel making. Needs large amounts of coal and limestone. A major producer of sulphur dioxide, acids and slag waste1. Aluminium production. Involves substantial soil degradation in bauxite mining2. Smelters are a major source of sulphur dioxide3 and substantial energy users. Zinc and lead industries. Considerable waste problems and a variety of health threats. Copper smelting. Sulphur dioxide emissions. Platinum production. Six million tonnes of ore have to be refined every year for car catalytic converters. Emissions of other pollutants. Sulphuric acid for batteries; heavy metals and VOCs in paints; mercury in circuits; CFCs and other greenhouse gases used in foam seats and body parts, asbestos in brake pads. Materials A US estimate of the energy required to manufacture 10 million cars a year in the States was the equivalent of 575,000 barrels of oil a day. In 1984, Toyota calculated that 20 per cent of the energy use devoted to an automobile was consumed in materials and vehicle manufacture4. Car manufacture makes large demands on natural resources. World figures are difficult to obtain, but figures have been produced for the USA (overleaf). materials composition of the car Most probable composition 1980 and 1990 Material Composite car Composite car Sales weighted Sales weighted 1980 1990 kg wt% kg wt% Low carbon steel 643 50.4 530 46.3 Alloy steel 83 6.5 91 7.9 Cast iron 174 13.6 91 7.9 Aluminium 81 6.3 136 11.9 Copper, brass 12 1.0 6 0.6 Zinc 5 0.4 4 0.3 Lead 10 0.8 8 0.7 Other metals 9 0.7 16 1.4 Rubber 65 5.1 58 5.0 Glass 34 2.6 32 2.8 Polymers 85 6.7 105 9.2 Other non-metals 76 5.9 68 6.0 Totals 1277 100% 1145 100% Henstock, Design for Recyclability5 Cars use 10 per cent of OECD plastics production, for a whole range of fittings from fuel tanks to seat frames, door handles to battery cases. Disposal of the large amounts of PVC, polyurethane, poly-proylene and high density polyethylene used in cars is difficult. Over three-quarters of a million tonnes of scrap plastic will have been produced in 1990 just from cars in Europe6. Dumping In 1988, 209.5 million car tyres, 42.7 million truck tyres, and 19 million off-road tyres were produced in the USA, and in the same year over 320 million tyres sold in Japan, France, West Germany and the UK. Only 30 per cent are retreaded7 and the bulk of the remainder is dumped. Various options for reusing tyres are being considered, including use as hard core for roads, and as fuel for incineration plants producing energy. This latter option would produce a number of carcinogens, such as dioxins, furins and benzene. Every year 230 million tyres wear out in the USA alone, and their disposal is becoming problematic. Heated in the absence of oxygen, tyres produce vast quantities of oil, more than a gallon per tyre, accompanied by thick black smoke. Dump fires are extremely polluting: a licensed tip of 10 million tyres burnt for several months in Wales, UK; a 1990 fire in Ontario saw 70-metre flames rising from a dump of 14 million tyres. Car dumps themselves can be sources of considerable local pollution. Surveys in the Flanders region of Belgium have found high concentrations of lead, cadmium and zinc8. Another Flanders study found that, on average, each dumped vehicle contained six litres of lubricating oils, three litres of fuel, five litres of cooling liquid, and three litres of sulphuric acid. Batteries are also dumped in large numbers. 100 million are discarded every year9: millions of cracking containers full of sulphuric acid represent a substantial environmental threat, which will have to be cleaned up at some time in the future. EC legislation is attempting to step up recycling, while US manufacturers are developing schemes to take back used batteries10. Recycling In Western Europe, Japan and the USA, nearly 40 million cars are discarded every year. Parts of these vehicles will be re-used, or recycled, but much will be wastefully disposed of in landfill sites or incinerated. In Western Europe it has been calculated that up to 20 per cent of the total vehicle weight is disposed of in landfills, even though 95 per cent of the metal in the car is recycled. The balance consists largely of plastic, glass, textiles, wood, leather and mud11. The process of recycling A discarded car usually goes first to a wrecker, who is primarily a spare parts dealer. In recent years dismantling for parts has lost some of its importance in countries where labour costs are high. The problem is exacerbated in those countries where local demand for the materials, especially the recovered steel, is too low to provide an adequate financial demand for the skeleton thats left after parts are stripped. After the removal of parts, the vehicle is usually stripped of non-ferrous metals. The battery may be sold for lead, engine blocks and other cast-iron parts are commonly removed and sold as foundry cast. Heavy steel components, including the chassis, are then cut up and sold to foundries. The hulk may weigh less than 450kg, seldom more than 900 kg, as between one and two-thirds of the car will have been removed. Problems arise with the remainder, which is commonly burned to remove non-metallic materials and then baled, shredded, or sheared12. It has been estimated that in 1987 there was 2.35 million tonnes of shredder residue in Western Europe alone, predicted to rise to 5.7 million tonnes by 200013. The barriers to vehicle recycling are simple. When a vehicle contains parts or materials too low in value to justify separate sale under prevailing market conditions, there is no financial incentive to reclaim them. In the absence of legislation, for example making manufacturers responsible for the adequate disposal of their products, the cars will continue to be dumped. 1. United Nations Environment Programme. Environmental Impacts of Iron and Steel Production, UNEP, Paris, (1987). 2. Caustic Waste Threatens Jamaica, New Scientist, (3 April 1986). 3. United Nations Environment Programme. Environmental Aspects of Alumina Production, UNEP, Paris, (1981). 4. Matsumoto, K. Quoted in Society of Automotive Engineers, paper 841314 (1984). 5. Henstock. Design for Recyclability, Institute of Metals, London, (1988). 6. Weber, A. Plastics in Automotive Engineering, BASF, Germany, (1989). 7. Where do all the tyres go?, Energy Economist, (May 1990). 8. Bond Beter Leefmilieu. Belgium, (2 November 1989). 9. UK Car Chaos, New Internationalist, London, (May 1989). 10. Environmental Data Services Ltd. Moulding a Cleaner Image for Lead, report no 160, ENDS, London, (May 1988). 11. Beger, R. Automobile Waste Management/Waste Valorisation, Automotive Industry and the Environment, Geneva conference, (November 1990). 12. As reference 5. 13. Fussler, C.R. Automotive Industry and the Environment, Geneva conference, (November 1990). Chapter five Roads, safety and Cities ROADS Increased car use leads to more road-building: more road-building leads to increased car use. New motorway building has emerged as a serious environmental issue in its own right. New roads are significant because they: need materials for construction; have severe impacts on the natural environment; take land previously devoted to amenity use or food production; fragment the countryside; increase traffic and development areas over a wider region. Most roads consist of sand, gravel and rock, with a tarmac surface. Each mile of UK motorway uses 250,000 tonnes of sand and gravel1. Throughout much of Europe these aggregates are often extracted from ecologically sensitive areas such as river valleys. Increasingly, they are obtained by marine dredging, with mounting controversy about the damage this entails. Impact on the natural environment Major new roads have a serious severing effect on local and sometimes national ecosystems. Feeding areas can be disrupted or cut off, breeding grounds affected and migration routes interrupted. Roads also act as agents of develop-ment. Sometimes this is intentional and appropriate. Tarmac usually provides an all-weather surface, particularly valuable for truck and van use in some Third World countries. On other occasions it is not appropriate. The multitude of factors affecting the Brazilian rainforests would barely have been possible without the construction of the TransAmazonia Highway. In industrialised countries most new roads are justified on grounds of removing traffic congestion: the reality is that the construction of new roads in congested areas increases rather than decreases the volume of traffic. This can be seen in the congested freeways of North America, where the response to traffic build-up has been to build roads with ever-increasing numbers of lanes, still without solving the problem of traffic density. In congested Third World cities, where the intention is to follow the First World example, there has been similar lack of success. A study of Bangkoks transport system indicated that high population density, increasing income and low fuel prices were leading to a rapid expansion of the car fleet and severe congestion. However, according to the report, if more roads were built in the city to accommodate this growth, traffic volume would increase at essentially the same level. The implication is that it will increase approximately proportionally to the roadway lane-kilometres provided and the vehicle-kilometres travelled2. Eastern Europe is seen as a key area for new highways. The International Road Federation is working on detailed plans for the region, and has been approached by the Soviet Union for assistance in building a toll motorway from Poland to Moscow3. Meanwhile, major new road schemes are planned over much of central and Western Europe, including links to both ends of the Channel Tunnel in France and the UK, and the giant Scan Link bridge between Sweden and Denmark. A motorway is planned from Austria to the USSR, going right through Hungary. All these schemes are likely to increase traffic flow. SAFETY Cars pose considerable threats to human safety, to their users, to pedestrians and to bicycle riders. Speed magnifies any faults caused by inefficient or drunken driving. For this reason most countries impose speed limits on motorways and smaller roads, Germanys unrestricted autobahns being an exception. Lower speed limits mean fewer fatal accidents, as well as reducing fuel waste and pollutant emissions. The European Conference of Ministers of Transport in November 1989 was presented with these figures for approximate current fatality levels on roads6: Europe 80,000 Americas 70,000 Asia 70,000 Africa 40,000 Oceania 5,000 The global total of 265,000 dead is a substantial figure. Additionally, the Conference was told that 10 million people are estimated to be injured on the worlds roads every year. Both the injury and death figures are on a scale equivalent to war. CITY LIFE Automobiles use up huge amounts of space. Roads, garages, and parking lots take up 15 per cent of Londons surface area. In American cities the figure is nearer 50 per cent, in Los Angeles it is two-thirds. Renner calculates that 60,000 square miles are given over to car use in the USA, equal to 10 per cent of all arable space7. Parking lots are particularly wasteful: many are empty for 80 per cent of their life. Despite its experience of sprawled cities and congested freeways, the US example exercises a potent influence over orthodox transport planners round the world. There is a widespread belief that other countries will over time catch up with North American levels of ownership and that main highways and national transport systems must be planned accordingly. In the planners view, higher automobile use is inevitable, therefore it makes sense to plan for it now. Planning to cope with the automobile has led to some strange traffic policies. Rather than deciding to ban the source of pollution from city centres, town planners are trying to accommodate it. Different responses to traffic pollution Mexico City Selling oxygen from phone boxes at $2 a shot. Athens Pollution described as environmental crisis in 1982. Car entry to city centre limited according to number plates of cars. Singapore Experimenting with electronic road pricing. Tax reductions of 50 per cent offered to cars used only after 7pm or at weekends. Stockholm Entry to city centre allowed only if rail season ticket displayed in windscreen (plan to be implemented). Los Angeles Passing wide-ranging legislation to limit emissions from vehicles, including the introduction of no-emission vehicles. Freiburg Issues subsidised monthly season tickets known as Environmental Protection Tickets. Vienna Cars banned from the city centre. 1. Council for Protection of Rural England. Evidence to the House of Commons Transport Committee, (March 1989). 2. Chongpeerapien, T., Sungsuwan, S., Kritiporn, P., Buranasajja, S. Energy and the Environment: Choosing the Right Mix, presented at Industrializing Thailand and the Impact on its Environment, Bangkok, (8-9 December 1990). 3. Trans-Europe Motorway Forecast. The Times, London, (27 January 1990). 4. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Environmental Indicators, Paris, (1991). 5. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The State of the Environment, Paris, (1991). 6. European Conference of Ministers of Transport. Working Group on Transport and the Environment, Paris, (November 1989). 7. Renner, M. Rethinking the Role of the Automobile, Worldwatch Institute, Washington, (1988). part 3 the car lobby Car firms are linked, nationally and internationally, with like-minded bodies and government departments with interests in road-building, oil, trucking and motorists. These groups operate formally or informally in coalitions at every level of society. International Road Federation The biggest link body of all is the International Road Federation, with offices in Geneva and Washington. It has consultative status with any body whose work might affect it, including the Organisation of African Unity, the European Council of Ministers of Transport and the United Nations. The IRF exists to see that roads are built and that the pressure for building them is maintained. It has called for all available expertise, equipment and services to be mobilised for the daunting task of upgrading the Eastern European road network. The IRFs view of the world is simple: The efficient use of the motor vehicle and the road ... is indispensible to economic, industrial, social and human development throughout the world1. European Roundtable of Industrialists A central focus of concern for this coalition of Europes biggest firms is to improve the movement for trucks; but the implications of this for car use for both touring and commuting are considerable. The Roundtable presses hard for missing links to be built: ScanLink and the Austrian A9 Phyrn motorway are examples of this. Group members include Pirelli, Fiat, Volvo, Petrofina, Total and Royal Dutch/Shell. Lobby groups in the USA It is in the United States that the power of the car-makers and road-builders has reached its height. The USA has the highest levels of car ownership, the most extensive highway network combined with the lowest levels of fuel tax in the West. This is no accident, but the result of decades of sustained and powerful lobbying. The result is the drive-in store, the 18-lane freeway and the four-car family plus smog, urban sprawl and wasted resources. The Highway Users Federation has been presenting its case for a $21 billion annual spending by central government2. Key points include: maintaining the Interstate system; creating a secondary national arterial system; road-building as a way of restoring metropolitan mobility; more local road-building, to connect rural America. The Highway Users Federation works closely with a range of powerful bodies, including the American Automobile Association, the American Trucking Association and the American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials. Between them they cover industry, commerce, banks, education, the professions, and state and federal government. Prominent members of the US road lobby have committed one of the most ruthless acts in American corporate history: the systematic destruction of electric street-car systems and their replacement with trucks and cars3. General Motors, Standard Oil and Firestone Tyres were the main movers behind a firm called National City Lines (NCL). During the 1930s and 1940s NCL moved in across 45 of the largest cities, destroying what were excellent transit systems. Los Angeles provided the clearest example of this activity. Known previously for its clean air, orange groves and one of the worlds largest urban rail systems, in 1944 an NCL affiliate purchased the system, scrapped its electric transit cars, tore down its power transmission lines, ripped up the tracks and placed GM diesel buses fuelled by Standard Oil on Los Angeles crowded streets. This description is from an Anti-Trust hearing of 1974. In 1949 the culprits were convicted of conspiracy and fined $5,0004. Los Angeles is now the most polluted area in the United States5. The car manufacturers Car manufacturers form a substantial lobby in their own right. In the USA, the Big Three Ford, General Motors and Chrysler sponsor Public Affairs Committees (PACs), which give direct cash grants to Congressional candidates. Between 1981 and 1988 there was a continual struggle to tighten up vehicle emissions under various Clean Air legislation proposals. The Big Three worked with 150 other PACs to oppose them; meanwhile, candidates opposed to the Clean Air measures received $23 million6. In other countries, the car lobby has direct access to government. In the UK, for example, some 3,400,000,000 per year is spent on subsiding transport by company cars7. In March 1991, this was reduced to 2,700,000,000. A month later, the heads of the four biggest car manufacturers in the UK were in the Chancellor of the Exchequers office, furious with anger over the decreased subsidy8. The manufacturers are aware of the increased concern over environmental pollution and have adjusted their marketing accordingly. But they have not stopped lobbying. The auto industry has challenged New Yorks plan to adopt California emission standards beginning in the 1993 model year. The suit, filed by the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association and the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers seeks to overturn the regulations. Massachussetts moved first to adopt California standards and passed a law but has yet to write the regulations. Other states in the NW may follow, and Texas and Illinois have considered it. The 1977 Clean Air Act allows states to adopt California standards as long as they give two years notice. Until last year no state had exercised that right. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are also named as plaintiffs in the suit.9 But this has not stopped the Automobile Industry from promoting itself as caring for the environment. For example, General Motors dedicated its 1989 Public Interest Report to the environment. Volvo has produced a brochure called Our products create pollution, noise and waste, dealing with its corporate commitment to protecting the environment. The UK Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders has produced a leaflet called The Motor Vehicle and the Environment, and Volkswagen has produced a car it is marketing as the worlds cleanest liquid petroleum fuelled vehicle. Fuel-efficient cars One example of the difference between the car lobbys public relations position regarding the environment and actual practice lies in the selling of fuel-efficient cars. Currently, 48 per cent of all OECD oil consumption is used by road transport10. Reducing this oil use will benefit the environment by reducing the impact of oil extraction and transportation; cut down the emissions from refining and distributing the fuel and reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and other pollutants from tailpipes. All this could be achieved by the industry selling fuel-efficient vehicles that already exist in prototype: but the companies prefer to sell fast gas-guzzlers. Fortune magazine commented, Consumers prefer steak, but Detroit continues to market sizzle. In 1975, US cars averaged only fourteen miles to the gallon. Concerned about the high level of oil imports devoured by motor vehicles, Congress enacted fuel-economy standards for new cars and light trucks. The CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards required manufacturers to make more fuel-efficient vehicles by 1978. Within ten years, new vehicles had doubled in fuel-efficiency, to 27.5 miles per gallon. The intention was to increase this again over the next ten years, but the price of oil dropped in the mid-80s, and intense manufacturer lobbying actually allowed a reduction of the standards down to 26.5mpg in 198911. Now the US CAFE standard is back at the 1988 level of 27.5mpg, which in itself is not a satisfactorily fuel-efficient figure. The only way at present to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from cars is to reduce the amount of fuel used: but the manufacturers want to sell cars on the basis of speed, not fuel-efficiency. With the Gulf War resulting in a continued supply of cheap oil, this situation looks unlikely to change. More energy-efficient cars12 Manufacturer Model Fuel economy Status highway mpg (litres per 100km) Toyota AXV 110 (2.13) diesel, prototype Renault Vesta 2 107 (2.19) petrol, prototype Volkswagen VW-E80 99 (2.38) diesel, possible production Ford unnamed 92 (2.56) diesel, research Peugeot VERA+ 87 (2.7) diesel, ongoing dev. Volvo LCP 2000 81 (2.9) petrol, prototype Renault EVE + 81 (2.9) diesel, prototype GM TPC 74 (3.18) petrol, prototype 1. International Road Federation. Better Roads Mean Better Living leaflet, Geneva and Washington. 2. Highways Users Federation. A National Highway Programme for the Future leaflet, Washington, (1989). 3. Derailing America GMs mark of excellence, Environmental Action Magazine, Washington, (March 1974). 4. As reference 3. 5. Lents, J. Executive Director, Air Quality Management Program, Southern California. Personal Communication, (April 1991). 6. Leavitt, H. Superhighway Superhoax, Doubleday, New York, (1989). 7. Earth Resources Research. Company Car Costs in the UK, Greenpeace UK, London, (March 1991). 8. The Times, London, (17 April 1991). 9. Kahn, H. Automotive News, (28 January 1991). 10. Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation, The State of the Environment, OECD, Paris, (1991). 11. Gordon, D. Steering a New Course, Union of Concerned Scientists, Cambridge, MA, (1991). 12. Bleviss, D. The New Oil Crisis and Fuel Economy Technologies, (1988). Conclusions and recommendations The worlds atmosphere is not an inexhaustible resource. Large quantities of pollution cannot be dumped into our air without incurring serious, possibly fatal, consequences. Air pollution threatens human health: global warming presents an unprecedented threat to the whole planet. These problems are being confronted at all international discussions on air pollution whether the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (acidic air pollution), the Montreal Protocol (ozone layer protection) or the World Climate Convention (global warming). If the future of the planet is to be protected, then the atmosphere must cease being used as a disposal route for wastes generated during industrial, agricultural, or other human activities. The transport sector, particularly road transport, is a substantial contributor to this pollution. Large quantities of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons are emitted directly from the tailpipes of cars and trucks. The car is a substantial user of ozone-depleting CFCs and their greenhouse gas substitutes. Low-lying ozone, resulting substantially from road transport, produces regional damage to the environment and contributes to global warming. Our use of the car produces more air pollution than any other human activity. For that reason, Greenpeace is calling for an immediate reduction in the amount of pollution emitted from the road transport sector. This can be achieved by a number of measures, some of which are listed below. However, we must take care not to address the problems of air pollution one at a time, only to find that measures taken to correct one problem ultimately exacerbate another. This has been the failure of the Montreal Protocol, for example. Instead, we must rise to what is perhaps the greatest challenge facing humankind today that of halting global warming. If we can commit ourselves to overcoming this enormous threat, we need not worry about the remaining causes of air pollution problems. The policy solutions to global warming will clean up the other problems too, provided that all pollution sources carry their share of the clean-up programme. The present explosion in numbers of cars and trucks on the road is unsustainable. As this report has demonstrated, however, the end-of-pipe pollution problems associated with the transport sector are only the tip of the iceberg. The industries that service the car the oil extraction and transportation industry, the refineries, the road-building companies, the waste disposal facilities are major polluters and energy wasters in their own right. These industries, too, will have to be overhauled. The beginning of the process, however, is to cleanse our policy-making of the preferences and biases that have boosted car travel above all other options. Individual travel, such as walking and cycling, and public travel in trains or buses, have been given less importance than travel by car. The result has been financial subsidy on a large scale, and the promotion of car travel at the expense of the other transport sectors. The transport model that has been constructed ignores the needs of the 90 per cent of the worlds population that does not own a car, and is oblivious to the environmental consequences of any further growth in the car population. A complete reformulation of transport policy must now take place worldwide. To begin with, all financial subsidies for cars should be removed. The true costs of car travel, including the environmental externalities where they can be calculated, should be borne by the polluter. This means an end to subsidised gasoline, to highway construction funded by the taxpayer, to company-provided or company-assisted cars, and of government or regional funding to auto manufacturers. The continued subsidy of car travel depends on the construction of a network of state-funded highways, which are built regardless of environmental considerations. The construction of new highways or A-roads should be halted until proper environmental impact assessments have been agreed. Truck transport is also subsidised by the free construction of roads, and by environmental deterioration in the form of air pollution and habitat loss. The use of trucks for most of the long-distance transportation that currently occurs should be rapidly phased out: in Europe the raising of the maximum truck loading weight should not go ahead. In Australia, and in other countries without an adequate rail infrastructure, rail rather than road pro-grammes should be constructed. People should have the right to breathe clean air: for that reason cars should be banned in any area where the level of pollution exceeds World Health Organisation guidelines, or regional equivalent standards. This would mean, in effect, the banning of cars from most city centres in the world. People should also have a basic right to travel, although this right will not be exercised so much in the future, when towns and urban areas will be planned to minimise unnecessary travel. In the meantime, however, the costs of car travel should include all environmental costs. Financial gains achieved from this polluter-pays principle should be switched into environmentally more acceptable public transport low-emission buses and trains built from recyclable materials, integrated public transport systems, better cycle ways and pedestrian access. Above all, however, there should be responsible leadership from the worlds governments and decision-makers. The environmental impact of the car is already approaching crisis point in many countries, and is growing at the worldwide rate of one car per second. The implications for global warming and for air pollution are extremely serious. If the continued growth in car numbers is not tackled urgently, then this approaching crisis will become reality. The problem with global warming is that no-one can forecast how soon the crisis will occur. By then, it may be too late to do anything about it. =end=