Is the world a better and efficient place than it was in the 1970’s?
The world in my opinion is a better place than it was in the 1970’s due to the fact that technology has gotten better, some may think that technology is the cause of things such as global warming and harmful gasses being released into the atmosphere. However, that is not the case as technology is helping humanity reduce the amount of gasses being released into the air and other waste being produced. Some of the things technology has helped us with us electric cars which uses electricity which means there are less carbon emissions are created, hydrogen cars which only emits water as it runs, however, hydrogen cars maybe extremely dangerous as it if a fire is lit, the cars will blow into huge flames. There are also hybrid cars which is basically cars that uses electricity and oil (petrol, diesel etc.) to run, these cars have a lower emission rates compared to normal cars. The cars used in the 1970’s were just run on either petrol or diesel which means they had emitted more harmful gasses into the atmosphere compared to the world now. The most important source of harmful gasses such as carbon dioxide and methane is road transport, it is mostly in particular petrol driven vehicles, and emissions from road transport fell only slightly between 1970 and 1990 but in recent years has declined more significantly. This is due primarily to the increased use of catalytic converters and to a lesser extent to fuel switching from petrol cars to diesel cars.
I believe that the emissions from off road sources which include portable generators, fork lift trucks, lawnmowers and cement mixers have been increasing as more houses are being built and more buildings are being built for businesses offices etc. However, the buildings and houses that are being created is actually has a better quality and it is also much more efficient than the houses and buildings in the 1970s as we now have double glazing windows, recycle bins, less packaging for materials and less heating on as heat is saved by double glazing windows.
The following image shows the amount of carbon dioxide in metric tonnes produced from 1970 to 2004 from different sources or methods.
As you may have noticed, the amount was reducing as the years passed on, during 2004, the emission rates were extremely low compared to 1970, therefore we are more efficient and the world is a better place compared to what it was in the 1970.