Reference no: EM133204396
A quote from the Earth Policy Institute summed up air pollution from vehicles this way, "while only some motorists contribute to traffic fatalities, all motorists contribute to air pollution fatalities." The point made was that air pollution kills far more people than vehicle accidents (and, for further evidence of this statistic, the article on Tehran's air pollution gave a figure that 3,600 people died in just one month because of their exposure to some of the worst air quality in the world). According to the EPA, emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) totaled 16.3 million tons. NOx comes from fuel combustion in motor vehicles, power plants, and other industrial, commercial, and residential sources, but 9.5 million tons of that total came from vehicles.
Based on a U.S. population number of 304 million people at the time the EPA data was released; determine the following numbers in the table below:
NOTE: 2,000 lbs. = 1 ton; put even the U.S. numbers into lbs.
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Number of people
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Total NOx emissions (lb.)
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NOx emissions due to vehicles (lbs.)
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You
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One
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Your Class
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10
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Your State
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4,539,130
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United States
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304 million
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The best way to approach the numbers is to divide the U.S. totals on air pollution by the US population to get an air pollution rate for one person. There are two numbers given to you already for the U.S. -- total emissions and for just auto emissions -- so, use those numbers. Then multiply for the class (10 students),and so on.