• Question: How bad is driving a diesel car for the environment

    Asked by Girlpowerforstem to Connor, Aruna, Anthony on 3 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Connor McGookin

      Connor McGookin answered on 3 Mar 2020:

      In Ireland the average diesel car will emit about 2.5 tons of CO2 each year, which is quite a lot, if the gas were trapped in a balloon then that balloon would be about 20m wide

    • Photo: Aruna Chandrasekar

      Aruna Chandrasekar answered on 3 Mar 2020:

      On average, the CO2 emissions of diesel cars (121.5 g CO2/km), to put this in context, if i drive the car 20km a day for a year, I am emitting approximately 1 tons of CO2 per car per year. There are at least 2 million cars in Ireland of which at least 30% are diesel vehicles. That means, diesel cars in Dublin alone emit enough CO2 that we would need 28,000 fully grown hardwood trees to neutralize the emissions. That is a lot !!

    • Photo: Anthony Newell

      Anthony Newell answered on 3 Mar 2020: last edited 3 Mar 2020 2:52 pm

      Diesel cars are significantly worse for the environment than petrol cars because unlike petrol cars, they release a higher amount of particulate matter into the air, or tiny pollution particles that go deep into our lungs and cause damage. This particulate matter is known to even cause cancer. This problem is so bad that in Paris, France they banned the use of older, more polluting diesel cars at certain times. Not only this but diesel cars also emit about the same amount of carbon dioxide as petrol cars so they contribute quite severely to both local pollution and global climate change. Electric cars, on the other hand, don’t contribute to any local pollution and are becoming much more popular in Ireland.

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