Volswagen Stole Our Clean Air To Sell Car's

The Volkswagen scandal has been going on for a while now - since 2009 - yet only recently has been recognized - September of 2015. In this time Volkswagen has been able to "rig" at least 11 million diesel vehicles, along with 800,000 gas fueled cars. How Volkswagen did this was by altering the exhaust system software to make the emissions pass while being tested, but recognize when regular driving is happening and make emissions go above the legal amount. Emissions are for reducing the amounts of pollutants made by the car. The main car computer controls how many pollutants that can pass through the nitrogen oxide trap; and by letting more pollutants through the car saves fuel and increases acceleration. Why Volkswagen did this - expenses. In this case fitting the emissions underneath the car is a difficult task. Volkswagen had to update their emissions to the SCR for the  models, which would have not only required reengineering but also a added 300$ to make the car. Also the fact that the car will save more fuel and have more acceleration and torque will result in a popular car. The Volkswagen cars emit from 9 to 40 times the legal limit of pollutants into the air. These are the pollutants that cause emphysema, bronchitis, asthma and many more types of respiratory diseases. The cars that were affected range from the VW Jetta 2009-2015, VW Beetle and Convertible Beetle 2012-2015, VW Passat 2012-2015, Audi A3 2010-2015, Jetta SportsWagen 2019-2014, VW Golf 2010-2015, and VW golf SportWagen 2015. Their are many more affected cars along with Audi and Porches. How this affects the environment - pollutants can be washed into the ground in the form of rain and kill many plants and animals. This effects Europe more than the U.S considering their higher amount of the rigged cars. The environmental damages are not  as severe as the health effects, but as Travis Bradford - director  at the Energy and Environmental Concentration at Columbia University says "this is just a drop in the bucket in terms of our aggregate pollution."