Chicago

Auto Pollution – Resource Reflection

Chicago Landscape
Chicago Landscape

The drive started, I found myself in a Dodge just outside of Chicago. My car, made in Michigan, with parts from who knows where I thought as I began my drive towards Detroit. As I head in the direction of the highway there are farms scattered about the landscape. I wonder how many had anything to do with Monsanto or where the food grown there ends up.  Passing through small towns I noticed that there was a pavilion for a Farmers Market, in more than one of them. Was my drive part of the auto pollution problem?

Auto Traffic

Traffic

I took the on-ramp to merge onto the highway.  Very quickly I became one of the hundreds of vehicles.  Counting only the cars that I can see with my naked eye I fathom each tank of gas each of these vehicles.  If the size of each tank is about ten gallons, which judging by the size of some of these that maybe half the actual size, there are easily one thousand gallons of gas and that is just what’s in my immediate area.

Construction Cranes

Construction

As I continue to drive I can see steam and some sort of gas being spewed into the air. I wonder that was being dumped in the air or what those buildings were made.  When where they build? Was there forest or plains in this area before they were? What materials were used to build the structures? Were these mined? If they were how far where they transported before they found their way to the walls and lighting fixtures? Questions I ask myself seem to grow bigger and more distant.  Almost like a timeline of the land and the materials assembled to make the buildings that currently reside on that land.

Auto Pollution

Roads

The longer I drive the size and quality of the road varies. However, I have been on the same road for about four hours. There are hundreds of thousands of roads in the United States. How many resources does it take to make these roads? One difference I noticed was that there were tollways in Illinois but in Michigan, there are almost none. In Michigan, the roads do not seem to have the same quality.  Perhaps the tolls help maintain quality which would mean it could be sustained for longer periods without pouring more capital into it. Though the oil consumption necessary for transportation will get to a point where these highways may become a luxury only available for the super-rich who can consume the expensive gas or pay extra for the auto pollution they contribute to.

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northland90

Evan was a graduate student at the University of Minnesota Studies and completed his undergraduate work at Northen Michigan University in Environmental Studies and Sustainability. He has held positions with the Michigan DNR as a Explorer Guide and was a Charlie Guide for Northern Tier National High Adventure Base in BWCA and Quetico,

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