Green travel ideas from two environmentally conscious travelers

Is it better to travel by car or plane? A new study claims that in the long run, air travel actually results in less warming than car travel.

The study, published in the Environmental Science & Technology Journal,  offers the following data, as far as freight and passenger transport is concerned:-

Freight Transport: Ship transport has by far the lowest climate impact: It exerts 5 to 10 to 30 times less warming per transport work than trucking.

The specific climate impact of air transport is 3 to 42 times higher than trucking, while rail transport of heavy goods has a 4 to 10 times lower specific climate impact than trucking.

Passenger Transport: Rail travel has at least a factor 4 lower specific impact and is cooling on shorter times, while bus and coach travel has 2 to 5 times lower specific impact. Travel with 2 or 3 wheelers has up to a factor 2 lower specific climate impact than car travel.

All of this is nothing surprising, but the kicker is that the study also posits that in the long run, air travel results in a lower temperature change per passenger-mile than car travel. It seems that cars emit more CO2/passenger-mile than planes, so car travel ends up with a bigger long-term impact.

Airplanes, on the other hand, create a bigger short-term impact due to their proximity to the ozone layer and clouds. As far as per passenger-hour traveled is concerned, aviation climate impact is a factor 6 to 47 higher than the impact from car travel.

Climate Impact of Passenger and Freight Transport: ES&T

Photo - respres

If you have not yet heard, Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize today!

Well, he happened to be in the SF Bay area at the time and a few Kangos got special access to his press conference today:

True to his cause he arrived in a sedan powered by bio diesel. The Conference was held at the Alliance for Climate Protection offices in Palo Alto.

First his wife Tipper Gore spoke saying that Al would be coming into the room 2 minutes to give a brief statement and also that he would not be answering questions; when he arrived he was greeted by 100+ news-people.

Then the former vice president thanked the Nobel Prize committee for selecting him the (shared) winner and he stated that he would donate the prize to green efforts; he also said that he was going to go to Europe to accept the prize in person.

Then he spoke briefly about the continuing effects of global warming on the polar ice caps: “polar scientists are now warning that at current rates the polar ice caps will be completely gone within only 27 years” (or language very similar, our Kango blogger was relying only on his memory)

Then Gore spoke passionately delivering a call in the form of an African proverb.

 

Gore said: “There is an old African proverb, If you want to go fast; go alone, if you want to go far; go together, we need to act both quickly and together to put an end to the climate crisis” (Again this quote is from memory)

With that, he concluded the press conference and thanked everyone for coming.

As he walked out of the room he was met with shouts from the press “Mr. Vice President Do you plan to run for president after winning this award?… Mr Vice President!”

With that; he left the room and he went to a private meeting with members of the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Gore’s Message is a one that is loud and clear: we need to act as one in the same direction if we want to go far and protect our planet.

This message starts with making simple green choices; while these changes can be very simple:

• Selecting an environmentally friendly hotel
• Flying greener
• And walking the walk

…but can collectively make a huge difference.

Gore: keep up the good work, we need you.