There are over 250 million cars on the road in the United States. The Earth and its many resources have been greatly affected due to the increase of greenhouse gases. Human activity, such as the use of cars, contributes to the greenhouse effect, which is the warming of the lower atmosphere and surface of a planet. We use 1/5 of all the world’s oil in order to fuel our cars, which is equivalent to 13 million barrels of oil a day. The average passenger car emits 80 pounds of hydrocarbons, 606 pounds of carbon monoxide, 41 pounds of nitrogen oxides, and over 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air, which is harmful to our environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stated 2012, “Pollution sources that move, such as cars, trucks, bulldozers, and trains are known as ‘mobile sources’...Nationwide, mobile sources represent the largest contributor to air toxics. Air toxics are pollutants known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health or environmental effects.” A solution in order to help our environment is to carpool with others. Carpooling is benefici al and should be done more often because it reduces the amount of traffic congestion, reduces traveling costs, and it is greener for the environment.
     Carpooling reduces the amount of traffic by taking another car off the road. The typical rush-hour commuter spends more than 31 hours in traffic than in 1892. When the amount of traffic decreases, it results in a reduction in fuel consumption, commute time, and the cost of road repairs. When we carpool, we can save 85 million gallons of gas per year. The U.S. can save 33 million gallons of gas per day if each vehicle carries one more person with them. Carpooling is also greener for the environment. When we carpool, there can be 220,000 fewer tons of emission released into the air. It also reduces the need for drilling or mining for crude oil. We use gas for fuel. As seen by the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill, mining for crude oil can possibly damage our environment. Also, carpooling reduces the demand for road widening. Road widening cuts down trees, and tress help to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. When there are less trees, there is more carbon in the air.
     During middle school, one of my friends lived two minutes away from my house, so we would occasionally carpool to school in the mornings. Now in high school, we have set up a carpool system with two other people in the afternoons. Carpooling is a great way to help you and your environment.

I think that schools should organize ways to let students know where they (approximately) live compared to one another. I live 25-35 minutes away from my school. My brother and I only take one person with us in the morning and judging from the number of people that attend where I go, many more people definitely live fairly close to wear I do. It would make such a difference to share the ride. Plus, carpooling is a great way to meet new people. And if you don't seem to connect with the person in the backseat, just remember what a great difference you are making to the environment. Aside from that, traffic would decrease if more people were involved with this. If schools organized something to put this into action, then nobody could use the excuse that he/she "just did not know who lived nearby"

I completely agree. I think that if more people carpooled then there would be less pollution from the gas that the cars emit. Also i think it would be a good idea to carpool home if you can, that way more people are being energy efficient and are helping the environment.

This is a great idea! Schools could create a sheet where at the beginning of the year everyone could sign there name next to where they live. Then someone could post the list to let people know if anyone near by can carpool. I did some research and I found that annually most cars emit their own weight in carbon dioxide, and I learned that if people carpooled more we can reduce that emission by almost half its amount. You can take the challenge to carpool with others and then talk about it on this website posted below.
http://www.carbonrally.com/challenges/29-carpool

This is a good idea! The dance team at my school has a sheet that they send out to everyone with all of the girls' addresses and it worked out really well. We practice early and a lot of girls were able to coordinate rides with others who lived close to them. I used it too and I carpool with two other girls in my area. It was really helpful to everyone and I totally think that schools should do this too. Carpooling helps save money, and the environment. Sightline Institute says that the average car with just one driver emits 1.10 pounds of carbon dioxide per mile. By carpooling with just one other person, that number decreases by two thirds. It also creates less traffic. http://greenblogic.com/wwwgreenblogicco … ving-Money

One of the largest contributors to pollution comes from our cars. In my city, many people use public transportation; however, most drive their own cars to get from place to place. I think carpooling could significantly reduce the amounts of carbon dioxide released into the air. By carpooling, we are taking many unnecessary cars off the roads, making them safer and reducing the amount of traffic. I'm the oldest of four children, so my family has always been carpooling with others in order to get each child from place to place. Currently, I carpool with one other girl to and from school every day. However, I'm sure I could eventually carpool with even more girls living in my area. Doing so may not seem very significant, but as more and more people begin to carpool, the positive impact may become more clear. It might be inconvenient to carpool at first, but I believe it's worth sacrificing for. As we reduce the number of cars on our roads, we're creating a more earth-friendly environment for future generations.

I completely agree with everything that's been said so far. I live 25-30 minutes away from school, and I really want to carpool, I just haven't found anyone close enough to do it with. CO2 emissions from cars have gone up by 45% from 1990-2007. The number of vechicle miles travelled in the US will reach 3 million in 2030. If we carpoool, we might not reach that number, and we can start saving energy and releasing less CO2 into the atmosphere. Thew estimated number of seats empty in an average car ride is 3.75. if we carpool, that number will slowly become less. My source for the stats is: http://www.carpooling.com/press/company … rket-data/

I agree with you both and fortunately for my family my brother, my cousin, and I all attend the same school so we carpool together and it saves my family lots of gas, money, and time. I also live very close to school and a few times a week I use public transportation to get home from my after school activities. When I calculated my carbon footprint I was glad to see that I was very low in the transportation category! I want to do as much as I can to keep our planet healthy!!!

I am aware that humans are a giant cause of climate change! I have asked my family to make many changes in our households. We all have tried to unplug appliances and have done less driving and more walking. As I have been studying about climate change I have learned that we are not the only mammals affected by this, animals living in the oceans that have extremely high CO2 levels are also having to adapt to the climate changes and it is definitely not easy. I hope to find more information about climate change and what I can do to help these mammals living in these oceans.

This is very good topic and makes a good point. Carpooling is like a two for one. One like you cited in your writing it is helping the environment with pollution. Since Global Warming is such a huge thing going around the U.S. this is one of the easiest and simplest ways to help. I live a couple houses away from a couple kids that go to my school and couple years ago we would carpool with them every day. This was the best feeling in the morning cause one you are able to reduce the carbon dioxide levels and two start the morning off with a nice little chat.
   Secondly, like you said, you are able to make new friends or keep up with your friends at the same time. Carpooling is one of the best ways to start off saving the environment. If one out of every three family's either walk, bike, or carpool with someone the carbon dioxide levels would decrease rapidly and make a big difference in the world.

This is a really good idea that should be put to practice.  I live close to my school but i know several people who could really use carpooling as an option to get to school.  Traffic has always been a problem from where i live and it can only get worse with the increasing numbers of cars on the roads.  With the idea of carpooling, pollution could decrease by having a reduced amount of cars.  Humans have always had a habit of needing to drive their cars to school or work from home when there are infinite amounts of solutions to make traffic and human pollution worse than it already is by simply trying on new ideas such as this one.
Some communities have tried to make the idea of hybrid cars a way for people to save more money on gas which has had success but that hasn't really caught on with all people yet.  Also the idea of electric cars has always been something inconsiderable for the general public and most of the time it can be way too expensive for buyers that haven't really grasped on to that idea either.  If the society together makes an effort to prevent human po llution from getting worse by using ideas like this, pollution can very well be a problem we can fix step by step.

I totally agree with your idea. A lot of people in United States and around the world releases a lot of carbon dioxide from transportation. I realized that not a lot of people carpool. I mostly carpool with my friend to go meet for my cross country, but not to school. I think carpool helps reducing the carbon dioxide and also it saves our gas. It is good for people and also to environment. I should try to carpool with other people who goes to my school.

I agree completely.  Cars and trucks account for about one fourth of the carbon dioxide released into the air in the United States.  I also carpool to and from school.  I carpool with 3 different kids to school, one being my brother, and 2 different girls from school.  I think it is also very convenient to carpool because if you carpool with 3 other kids, you only have to drive one fourth of the time as opposed to every day.  It definitely has a positive impact on the environment, as it reduces the amount of carbon dioxide released.  On my middle school's website, they had a page where they listed kids who lived in the same zip code to help arrange carpools.  I think this is a great idea, and I think other schools should also do it.