We’ve known it for a long time but it didn’t quite add up. With increasing frequency, we experienced bizarre weather conditions which had not been felt earlier in the past century. These phenomena are due to the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases create a blanket that traps the release of heat back into space consequently making the earth a warmer place to live. Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, the so-called greenhouse gases are discharged into the atmosphere when fossil fuels are burned such as gasoline and coal.
According to Greenhouse Gas Online, in the US and much of the developed world, 30 percent of carbon dioxide emissions are due to transportation. One third of these emissions are from diesel engines – buses, delivery trucks and semi-trailer trucks.
In 1936, when the trucking industry begun its operations shipping agricultural products from farms to cities, diesel fuel emitted fumes of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, visible as the obnoxious dirty soot. Greenhouse Gas Online says that for the past 100 years there had been a rapid accumulation of man-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This started the cycle of global warming. Clearly, transportation takes most of the blame.
The inventor of the prototype diesel initially utilized vegetable oil as fuel for his invention. Rudolf Diesel then knew that the popular fuel would be a refined chemical derived from gasoline. Despite this, he was hopeful that vegetable oil would find its useful place as the main source of fuel for his engines. Bio-diesels gradually became an alternative fuel source in the 1920 and the 30’s in some European countries.
Using bio-diesels in trucks has an immense impact on the environment and is easy on the pocket. Bio-diesels commonly use vegetable oil such as soy or rapeseed oil and sometimes animal oil. Oil from restaurants used to fry your French fries and other foods can be recycled to manufacture bio-diesels. When used on your diesel engine, it increases the lubricity of your fuel and doesn’t give off soot and greenhouse gas. It isn’t only renewable but biodegradable too.
In 2000, Wang and Lyons of the University of West Virginia made a study comparing the emissions of trucks that run on bio-diesel and trucks on pure petroleum diesel. The result remarkably proved that trucks on bio-diesels have a much lower particulate matter, lower hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions as compared to the trucks on petrol fuel.
It is estimated that 20 pounds of carbon dioxide is produced from a gallon of gasoline burned. If 12,000 gallons is used per year by a fleet of trucks belonging to a trucking company that would amount to 240,000 pounds of carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere. Most trucking companies utilize petrol diesel year after year, and the poor planet gets warmer faster as more greenhouse gases accumulate and environmental disasters happen regularly. But the reverse can happen. Imagine the impact – a cleaner and a life supporting and sustaining earth – if all trucking companies opt to use bio-diesels.
Traveling the highways, trucks on petrol diesel spew out noxious fumes threatening the health of people all around. These fumes contain aromatic carcinogens that increase people’s risk of developing lung cancer over time. Moreover, bio-diesels reduce the incidence of acid rain since, they don’t contain any sulfur. And because a truck on bio-diesel moves silently, they are sweet on the ears too.
Some skeptics claim that bio-diesel doesn’t deliver in terms of mileage. But studies reveal that trucking companies utilizing bio-diesel doesn’t make them less efficient. There had been no significant increase or decrease in fuel mileage and they deliver food, furniture or people smoothly. Additionally, the natural cleaning property of bio-diesel adds lubricity to the fuel and protects the engines. This gives you minimal costs to maintain.
Convinced that the best way to a healthier earth, several trucking companies run exclusively on bio-diesels. The fleet of trucks of Serenity Movers is fueled by bio-diesels and travels 55,000 miles per year transporting furniture efficiently, safely, sweetly and serenely.
If all the trucks utilize bio-diesel, the catastrophic scenario that prophets of gloom keep harking on would be averted. Evidently, the process of global warming will drastically decelerate. We might yet be able to save the melting of the polar caps, save some flora and fauna species from extinction and avert disastrous consequences in our planet. As a bonus, we’ll save our dollars, stop our dependence on oil and pay our farmers more. We’ll be able to nurture a sustainable, productive and safe world as a legacy for our children.
If we want to experience a better world, it’s time to advocate and choose shipping services using bio-fuels. Let’s all take action!
Lillian Marie Lauran publishes for NY moving company Serenity Movers. Next time you move – look for GREEN NY movers. Choose Serenity Movers New York.
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