ABSTRACT
The escape of a large amount of unburned hydrocarbons into the air, including hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide, diminishes only as fossil-fueled engines such as those in motor vehicles reach operating temperature. To determine the proportion of vehicles with thermostats removed, the author utilized a random sample of motor vehicle operators in a tropical country, namely, Jamaica, in 2015 and a similar survey in two non-tropical locations. The extent to which thermostat removal is practiced in other tropical locations was not conventionally investigated. However, to the extent that similar practices persist elsewhere in the tropics, the implications for climate change increase. The working hypothesis as stated is based on the belief that a significant fraction of the population in some tropical locations are convinced that engine temperature regulators were installed only because motor vehicles are manufactured in “cold countries” and remove, without replacement, thermostats in their vehicles.
