The effects of air pollution on the human body can include dizziness, headaches, irritation to the eyes and nose, coughing, shortness of breath, sore throat, chest pain, colds and allergies, lung disease, and possibly some kinds of cancer. These problems affect everyone. Children, older adults, and those with chronic lung or respiratory disease are affected even more strongly.

Automobiles are the biggest user of fossil fuels on Earth. An automobile engine transforms the chemical energy stored in gasoline into mechanical energy. Let’s see how efficient this process is. Remembering the laws of thermodynamics, we know that not all of the energy in a fuel can be converted into mechanical energy. For automobiles, even the best designed conventional vehicles are only 35% efficient. That means that only 35% of the energy in gas that is burned in the engine is used to make the car move forward. The other 65% of the fuel energy is released into the environment as heat through the radiator and in the exhaust that comes out the tail pipe.