Effects of Automobiles Essay

Automobiles have become a big part of today? s society. Whether it be a car or van, the modern American citizen probably can? t go a day without using one. These machines are the main escorts for our daily travels from work to home. Most Americans depend on their vehicles to run well so that they can maintain their everyday treks of commuting back and forth. These automobiles have been the cause of an abundance of jobs throughout the United States. A great number of our citizens are employed by automobile production plants, car repair industries, and other automobile related positions. To think that cars could have been non-existent makes us wonder where thousands of our citizens would find work. We know that a big part of the United States industrial and trading world relies on the automobile and its components. Another view of our life without automobiles deals with our visual perspective. Car and truck advertisements consume a great deal of air time for television commercials. We see these luxurious machines and little by little we are tempted and pressured into investing into one of them. Numerous amounts of our modern movies also involve automobiles. For example, ? Speed? and ? Batman? both deal with automobiles of some sort. Whether it be the common city bus or the exquisite vehicle entitled the ? Batmobile? , these both influence our ideas of the automobile world. On the reverse side, though, automobiles have also been the cause of much of the world? s pollution. The carbon-monoxide released by a car? s exhaust pipe spews into our environment making our air dirty and the earth a bit closer to extinction. With all these pollutants in our air, it often makes it hard to breath and difficult to see. Many times we find a layer of dirt and grime on the back bumper of our cars and realize that about thirty times this much is tossed into the air each day by one individual vehicle. Any automobile which runs on diesel fuel releases a thick cloud of black smoke into the environment constantly. This disgusting smog stains buildings, covers trees, and hovers above many of our major city in large masses. Automobiles also contain some fluids that can be deadly to us and our wildlife. We often hear of gasoline spills by tanker trucks or by ships, both of which are meant to supply our automobiles with fuel. The gasoline encompasses huge areas of our oceans and suffocates our animals with blankets of black slime. Our own greed for bigger and better things causes many of our nation? s animals to die each year. Accidents are another default of today? s modern automobiles. Cars and trucks are the cause of the deaths of thousands of Americans annually. Almost everyday, numerous accidents can be witnessed by a single individual. Resulting from these broken parts and twisted sections of steel, are dead bodies and broken families. The yearning for speed and the desire for competition has ended the lives of many automobile owners. Young drivers often compete against each other in races and other dangerous games. Many times, these foolish schemes end in fatality. Another leading cause of death in automobiles results from alcohol abuse. This terrible mixture of drinking and driving commonly ends in death of the driver and of other innocent civilians. The automobile has been the victim of trillions of fender benders and more serious accidents. This has caused concern in the mind of society, and with it has come precautions. The cars and trucks of today have been formatted with all types of life saving gadgets to make traveling easier and less risky. These high tech automobiles of today have revolutionized our world. We have gone from a crank engine to an eight cylinder, one hundred sixty horsepower engine. We have progressed from speeds of twenty five miles an hour to speeds well over one hundred miles an hour. Roads have expanded, bridges have been widened, and new breeds of automobiles have been introduced along the way. This constant change of what appears to have a good outcome also brings along some negative aspects. These downfalls include those discussed above and many others. With every great step towards technological breakthroughs in the automobile world, new problems and hindrances arrive which are sure to lead to more fatal outcomes. Though cars have changed our lifestyle for the better, the extra impact of negative effects has hurt our society as a whole.