YJA Convention 1996 07 San Francisco CA Second

Author(s): Young Jains of America (YJA)
Publisher: Young Jains of America YJA USA

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ENVIRONMENT AND JAINISM
THE NEXT GENERATION VEHICLE: IS A JAIN CAR POSSIBLE?
Compiled by: Nancy Jain
Coordinated by: Nancy Jain and Himanshu Jain
North Americans drive more than 4 billion miles every day. In doing so, we consume over 200 million gallons of gas, emit 4 billion pounds of the greenhouse gas Carbon Dioxide (CO), release 34% of the acid rain causing Nitrogen Oxide (NO), and produce 27% of the Hydrocarbons (HC) responsible for tree-killing and health damaging smog. Experts further estimate that automobiles also account for more than 40% of the pollution in America's waterways (over two million tons of oil finds its way into our rivers and streams every year). That's all in one day!
For years, research has focused on electric cars powered by lead-batteries as an alternative to conventional gasoline vehicles, but that effort may have a fatal flaw: the ideal battery. Nobody has yet invented a battery that is both powerful and cheap enough to the job - and there is no guarantee that such a battery is even possible.
Moreover, the potential risk from both production and use of lead-batteries is under careful scrutiny from scientists. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh suggest that emissions from mining, smelting and recycling the lead required for a large fleet of electric vehicles could pose serious threats to public health. Airborne lead from vehicle exhaust can cause people to suffer from liver, kidney, and brain damage, and even death. Scientists also suspect that it's responsible for damaging crops as well.
According to researches, an "available technology" electric car would indirectly generate 1,350 milligrams of lead emissions for each kilometer traveled. The "ideal" car would produce less lead, about 120 milligrams per kilometer, but even this is six times more that what a tiny Geo Metro burning gasoline with lead additives would emit. Thus, while government regulation requiring "zero-emissions vehicles" are intended to improve public health by limiting smog, they may have an indirect effect of exposing thousands of people, particularly those living or working near industrial sites to toxic doses of lead.
Because of these critical drawbacks, many engineers are leaning toward another option: hydrogen fuel cells. A fuel cell is not a battery, but rather an engine that converts natural gas, methanol, or hydrogen into electricity without emission. They are cleaner than electric cars, and the technology is much closer to being perfected.
Hydrogen is an especially attractive transportation fuel. It is not only the cleanest fuel, but abundant in nature and remarkably easy to produce. Hydrogen can be extracted from water using electricity, or cooked out of natural gas and even municipal waste, using heat. If the energy harnessed for hydrogen production is clean - the preferred
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