Response to Matan's Presentation

We both had the same topic which was cars, but he was more focused on the physical and large scale effects on nation. Matan said that cars were expanding the cities and therefore creating suburbs. Because of the ability to travel as an individual easily, the car was able to move the homes of people who work in the city out of the city to the suburbs and keep their jobs. Without the car they would have to walk ride or take a train to work which would be much less convenient. However, we did focus on the same current issue which was pollution and fuel consumption. Interestingly, he had an opposing view to me. He said that pollution is terrible and that the people should give up their sports cars and SUV's in order to get a car that has 5 times the miles per gallon. Matan said that the United States alone produces 20% of the worlds carbon dioxide emissions just from the automotive pollution. This is an amazing fact because at first I figured that the small amount of gas that comes out of a car's tail pipe really does not effect the worlds gigantic atmosphere. However, just the cars in the US are effecting the entire world with 1/5 of the worlds pollution. This proves the point that research must be focused on more fuel efficient cars. Electric cars are starting to really boom also and can help with this problem by eliminating C02 emissions. However, knowing this I still believe that it is okay to own super cars. The feeling and freedom that they give the consumers is much more important than the emissions of the cars, if and only if, the majority of the cars on the road are producing 50 miles to the gallon or more. This compromise will let people enjoy the freedom and control that high power cars give and still help stop the pollution in everyday cars.