Can Green Cars Help Minimize the Problem of Global Warming?

Global warming is one of the most hotly debated issues today. Cars have been identified as one of the leading contributors to the escalating global warming problem. To minimize the effects of cars on the environment and limit its impact on global warming, a potential solution has been identified: green cars.

According to those who believe in global warming, drivers need to start using green cars. But what exactly are green cars and would they really slow down global warming?

Electric cars and hybrid cars are two such types of green cars. In reality, electric cars are not at all environment friendly. In order to get an electric car to run, it must be "charged" in power stations. These power stations convert only 30% to 40% of the energy into electricity. When the electricity is being transferred from the station to an electric car, 30% of the electricity is lost along the electric cables. Thus, by the time the electricity reaches the electric car, much of the energy is lost. Electric cars may cut down pollution in inner cities, but they aren't efficient at all.

Hybrid cars, on the other hand, are becoming the preferred cars by many motorists. A hybrid car has both an electric motor and a gas engine. The energy generated whenever you brake is what powers up the motor battery. Compared to electric cars, hybrid cars appear to be more environment friendly -- in theory, at least. In practice, however, hybrid cars are still not up to par.

Which?, a British consumer magazine put four hybrid cars to the test by driving them all throughout London. The four hybrid cars performed poorly. George Marshall-Thornhill, the senior research at Which?, wrote: "Some of these should have performed much better."

Hybrid cars are not at all completely "green" either as the batteries would still need to be disposed of. They aren't exactly biodegradable. Cost is another disadvantage of hybrid cars. For most people, hybrid cars are expensive compared to the regular engine-run cars. Since hybrid cars are a relatively new car concept, they are still not produced in a large scale so as to drive the costs down.

The bottom line is that green cars like the pure electric cars and hybrid cars end up using more energy, are more difficult to dispose of and are just too expensive for common motorists. Perhaps in a few years, green cars would be a legitimate option for motorists, but for now it still falls short of being a practical solution to global warming.

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