Environmental Science 14th Edition by Tyler Miller ,Scott Spoolman

Exercise 12

In 2008. the average fuel economy of new cars, light trucks, and SUVs in the United States was 11.4 kilometers per liter (kpl). or 26.6 miles per gallon (mpg), and the average motor vehicle in the United States was driven 19.300 kilometers (12.000 miles). There were about 250 million motor vehicles in the United States in 2008. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 2.3 kilograms ol CO ₂ are released when 1 liter of gasoline is burned (19.4 pounds of CO ₂ are released when 1 gallon is burned). Use these data to calculate the gasoline consumption and carbon footprints of individual motor vehicles with different fuel efficiencies and for all of the motor vehicles in the United States by answering the following questions:
Determine the number of metric tons of CO ₂ emitted annually by (a) the car described in Question 1 with a low fuel efficiency, (b) a fleet of 250 million vehicles with this same fuel efficiency, (c) the car described in Question 2 with a high fuel efficiency, and (d) a fleet of 250 million vehicles with this same high fuel efficiency. These calculations provide a rough estimate of the carbon footprints for individual cars and for the entire U.S. fleet with low- and high-efficiency cars. (1 kilogram = 2.20 pounds; 1 metric ton = 1,000 kilograms = 2,200 pounds =1.1 tons; 1 ton = 2.000 pounds).