Efficient Carbon Travel and Carbon Offsets - 198

 First, if you do not care what kind of extreme weather your kids or grand kids will deal with in the future there is no reason to read this column.

How extreme the weather becomes is a direct result of the cumulative carbon dioxide we emit. Transportation is attributed with 25% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. Of this 25% about 45% is passenger vehicle pollution, road freight is 30%, shipping is 11%, passenger and freight rail is 1%, and aviation is accountable for 11%.  (2% Other).

If we want to travel producing the least carbon pollution what are the considerations? If you are serious about reducing your carbon footprint, I suggest you do a little research as there is a lot of interesting reading and a lot of nuances. This column is only an introduction.

In most situations, air travel creates the most carbon pollution per mile traveled. The takeoff and climb are particularly fuel intensive because the plane is lifting you, your buds, a load of fuel, and the aircraft into the heavens. Walk 100 feet on a level surface and then compare it to walking up a stairway and see what takes the most effort? Thus, short hop airlines burn a lot of fuel for the distance they travel.

Next is the large car, pickup truck, or full-sized van. If you are alone in an F-150, you are using a 4,000+ pound vehicle to move your 200-pound body.  Very inefficient. But here is an important point, if you carpool each person dramatically improves your efficiency. One rider means your carbon personal footprint is cut in half. If you take on three passengers and you divide by three. Taking a van full of people out west to ski is most likely your most efficient, and cheapest way, to get to the big slopes.

If you transition to more efficient cars, you lower your carbon pollution footprint. If you use an electric vehicle, you reduce it even more.

Public busses, trains, and ferries are very efficient ways to move people. The savings varies from three times more efficient to 15 times more efficient for a ferry.

The hands down winners are walking, bicycling, and canoeing. To be accurate, your exhalations contribute a little CO2. Tip: Do not try to conserve here.

The electrification of any mode of transport is a game changer. And, if the grid is running on wind, solar, or nuclear your carbon footprint almost ceases to exist.

Here is an example. The Eurostar is the train connecting the UK via the English Channel Tunnel, nicknamed the Chunnel, with the continent. It has been in operation 25 years and is run completely by electricity. The ultimate goal, which they are close to realizing, is to have the electricity sourced 100% from wind, solar, and nuclear.

If you choose to take the train from London to Paris, your footprint will be 90% smaller than flying and the time you expend checking in and travelling, will be less. This train has exceeded 200 miles an hour!

Eurostar, and the highspeed train networks of Europe, are proof you can go green, be reliable, and haul as…many folks as a plane.

But sometimes only a plane will do. What can you do to shrink your footprint?

Some of my friends took a trip to Panama recently on United. My last send off was, “Have a great time Gringos and don’t forget the carbon offsets.”

They purchased them! And their many questions led to this column. What is a carbon offset? A carbon offset is something you buy. The money from it helps fund projects which will eventually make carbon free energy like wind or solar projects. 

Or it will fund something which will draw carbon from the atmosphere. Some purchased offsets will fund the purchasing and protection of the Amazon, African, or Indonesian rainforests. I suspect, as new carbon sequestration techniques are developed, these businesses will be funded by carbon offsets also.

 

There is an incredible amount of information on off-sets. I would start with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology website searching MIT carbon off-sets*, reading it and its links.

As general rule, if you want to make a difference the first thing to do is examine your life and make the changes you can, and then some more.

In the big picture, voting for a politician or political party committed to modernizing the system, such as the current infrastructure bill, is bottom line. As you may note from my example, the super-fast and efficient high-speed train in Europe, runs on electricity. Their grid can handle it. Unless we in the USA support building a new modern electrical grid, we might as well pack it in and just wait for the storms to take us back to the stone age.

Carbon offsets encourage individuals and businesses to take responsibility for their part in global climate change. Offsets don't excuse excess, but if viewed as aid for people and the environment, are beneficial. Perhaps more importantly, the popularity of voluntary offsets could help promote a carbon market or a carbon tax backed by public policy.

My take on carbon offsets is twofold. They have been around awhile. If you buy them from an airline like United Airlines, they are vetted and inspected. You can feel good you bought them.

More importantly, when you buy them, you can tell others you did. This is called bragging rights. Since the attention span of most Americans is measured in seconds, we forget the most important thing in the world is not Packer Football but the rapidly warming planet.

Telling your friends and your kids you bought an offset is a reminder to them that you care.

*https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/carbon-offsets