Prevention
of Global Warming the Key to the Future of the Earth and Humans
Among
many global environmental problems such as ozone layer depletion,
acid precipitation, enlargement of deserts, decrease of tropical
precipitation forests, and industrial waste, "global warming" is
the most important theme, which must be dealt with in a worldwide
scale.
Gases contained
in the earth atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, methane, dinitrogen
monoxide, flon and vapor, are permeable to short wavelength energy
{visible rays) from the solar, but they absorb long wavelength
energy {infrared rays) released from the earth toward the outer
space. Therefore, the more atmospheric gases like carbon dioxide
exist, the more temperature rises, as the heat stays in the atmosphere;
this is the mechanism of global warming.
This mechanism is also called II greenhouse effect"
as it is very similar to the mechanism of greenhouse used for
crop cultivation. In other words, the gases have the same function
as the glass of a greenhouse.
Warming-effectiveness of each gas varies; flon is some thousands
times as effective as carbon dioxide. However, carbon dioxide
is considered as the common example of the greenhouse effect
gas, as the rapid increase of carbon dioxide exhaust amount due
to large utilization of fossil fuels after the Industrial Revolution
in 19th century has been quickening the pace of global warming.
Because of these greenhouse effect gases, the ground surface
temperature of the earth is kept at 15°C in average.
If there were no such gases, the ground surface temperature
would be minus 18°C. The temperature difference of
33°C is the greenhouse effect. If the concentration
of the greenhouse effect gases rise, advancing the global
warming, the amount of precipitation and seasonal climate
patterns will be changed. As well as temperature rise,
and natural ecosystem and human life will not be able to
keep up with these changes, resulting in a great confusion
of the world.
If we keep exhausting these greenhouse effect gases just
like we currently do, the temperature will rise for 2°C
in average after 100 years. Temperature rise of 2°C
will raise the sea level for 50cm, and this will lead to
definite changes in climate regions, distribution of noxious
insects, agricultural production, fish hatching locations
and so on, and will also lead to tremendous economical
and social losses. Moreover, as this temperature rise is
faster than ever, potential problems such as impossibility
of / follow-up by nature and human society system, and
phenomenon of multiple acceleration of global warming are
concerned.
For future global warming, change in exhaust amount of
carbon dioxide has a very important meaning, among all
other greenhouse effect gases. Except for the temporary
decrease after the Oil Shock in 1973, the world's carbon
dioxide exhaust amount has kept increasing since 1950,
and it has reached 6.2 billion tons.
Prevention of the global warming means reduction
of greenhouse effect gas exhaust. We TOYO are now
making every effort to carry out the following:
Reduction
of gas generation during tire manufacturing process At tire
manufacturing plants, large amounts of electricity and heat
energy are consumed during mixing, stock preparation, tire
building, curing and inspection. Carbon dioxide is generated
when combusting heavy oil and coal to generate necessary energies.
This means, electricity and heat saving during manufacturing
process leads to reduction of carbon dioxide generation. We
are already carrying out detailed countermeasures for energy
saving, such as improvement and repair of facilities, improvement
of mixing techniques, shortening of curing time and rationalization
of production method.
Contribution
of tires to reduction of carbon dioxide generation Carbon dioxide
is generated by combustion of gasoline and / light oil, at
driving of a car. The tire driving resistance is called "rolling
resistance", and if the rolling resistance is lowered,
the amount of gasoline and light oil needed will be reduced,
thus reducing carbon dioxide generation amount.
By
developing the technologies for the design, structure, and rubber
mixing of tires, the rolling resistance has been lowered by 20%
since 1990, and weight of a tire has also been reduced by 10%.
In addition, service life (wear durability) of a tire has been
extended and saving of resources and materials are indirectly
contributing to the reduction of gas generation.
Furthermore, in parallel with development of environmentally conscious
gasoline/electricity hybrid cars, electrical cars using storage
batteries and solar cars, we are carrying out R&D activities
in order to realize further reduction of fuel consumption and tire
weight.
