The most significant effect of vehicle emission is climate change. This is because emissions from cars usually affect the natural climate due to additional gases in the air. In turn, these effects have great impact on the economy, both national and universal. Negative climate effects caused by car emission will eventually cause low food production, floods, air pollution, diseases, and conflict within and without the nation, to mention a few. All these negativities are directly associated to poor economic effects. Governments and people have to pay for these damages, especially changes in agriculture as a result of car emission. The most common emissions that pollute the environment are nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide. Nitrogen oxides are the most severe air pollution product because they cause death or disability as a result of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Such challenges have very terrible economic effect to a country. For instance, the emissions deprive countries good manpower whenever the employees lose their lives or the ability to work. In this case, it is essential to identify the economic problems attributed by car emissions, to establish ways to deal with the issue.
Although vehicles are important for transport and facilitating business activities, the emissions derived from vehicles have significant effects to the climate. Global warming due to gases such as methane, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide cause undesirable impact to the environment (Zeller, 2015). Stanford University researchers have reported that the emission of carbon dioxide gases has caused an economic damage of about 220 dollars per ton (Zeller, 2015). Social carbon costs have also increased due to emergence of various car companies producing different makes that emit many gases. These costs are associated with changes in agricultural produces, damaged properties from flooding, human health costs, and charges for other byproducts of warming. Integrated assessment models are being applied to determine the social carbon cost in a number of countries. However, these models have a few limitations when it comes to determining the economic, physical, and ecological impacts of climate change. There is no specific analysis that can assert the total economic damages attributed by emission of gases (Zeller, 2015). Nevertheless, universal communities have established an underestimate for the potential economic damage attached to the car gas emissions. Specifically, the research affirms that there is at least forty billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted annually across the globe, not to mention other gases (Zeller, 2015). This is a clear indication that the social, physical, and environmental effects, especially negative outcomes, caused by these emissions are eminent. The key metric social carbon cost for US is 37 dollars per ton after the current evaluations.
The recent Volkswagen scandal about gas emission, also attributed to major economic concerns. Given that these vehicles were polluting the air with nitrogen oxides, nations lost a significant amount due to the severe properties of this gas (Wang et al., 2016). Particularly, the gases are tied to a number of many undesirable diseases that claim human life. For instance, cardiovascular disease, and asthma exacerbations can be caused by nitrogen oxides. Researchers outlined that the amount of nitrogen oxide gas emitted was mostly going to cause patient admissions, not to mention the probable deaths attributed by the same. This would mean hours lost in hospital instead of working and providing labor. Also, additional charges would be paid for treatment due to the health effects of gas emission. Assuming the best-case scenario, premature deaths caused by these emissions amounted to about 42 million dollars (Wang et al., 2016). Otherwise, they amount to 418 million dollars. However, other analysts gave substantial arguments that the economic effect of Volkswagen was far greater and worse than earlier estimate. The main claim was that these emissions were discovered after Volkswagen vehicles had polluted the environment for many years, due to their non-compliant technique, and the software that helped the company circumvent nitrogen oxides testing, by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Secondly, researchers found out that the first analysis was conducted after considering about 482,000 vehicles instead of the possible 800,000 (Wang et al., 2016). More to it, the cars used for the analysis were the 2-litre diesel engine instead of the 3-litre diesel engine. This meant that the already calculated economic damages were underestimated.
Arguments by researchers and economic analysts, assert that social carbon cost, on the other hand, are being underestimated by various communities. The analysis showed that various areas of major concern were being overlooked. Particularly, carbon dioxide has caused food price spikes, ocean acidification, water shortages, increased wildfires, and escalation of world conflict. The conflict is majorly attributed by mass migration, extreme weather, and resource scarcity. Stanford researchers argued that the negative climate change influenced by car emissions has caused huge declines in national GDP for the less developed and developing nations (Zeller, 2015). In this case, the current evaluation can be underestimation of the real situation. The issue of food shortages happens due to the formation of acidic rain by carbon dioxide that is in the air. Since acidic rain does not favor food production and grow, people are forced to buy the scarce available food at higher prices. Those that cannot afford to buy food are then left out without any. Besides this, fishing in the lakes and oceans is also limited due to acidification of water bodies. Eutrophication of water due to nitrates might also cause death of fish in these bodies.
In essence, gas emission by cars is a very crucial aspect that must be given a larger priority. There is little research conducted on the same, thus making this phenomenon issue of huge priority. Though much has been said about the possible economic effects aligned to emission of gases, there is very little accomplished to counter these effects, or mitigate the amount of gases emitted by vehicles. Researchers, economists, and environmentalists are obliged to conduct more studies to establish measures that can be used to change the equation. Economic impacts of nitrogen and nitrogen regulations also need analyses. In addition, vehicle gas emission is a very essential aspect that requires much attention.