Traveling long distances by car alone is just as bad for the environment as air travel, according to a new study reported in Phys.Org. The study was conducted by researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research - Oslo (CICERO).
The study was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Researchers compared the climate impact of different modes of transportation with a standard constant travel distance of between 500km and 1000km, which they estimated to be typical of most business or holiday trips.
The researchers then calculated the carbon impacts of various forms of transportation by considering vehicle occupancy, fuel efficiency and climate impact over time. The formula was applicable globally, according to Jens Borken-Kleefeld, a research scholar on the topic of mitigation of air pollution and greenhouse gases at IIASA and the co-author of the study.
"We took the example of Europe because we come from here and we understand the transport systems here, but the chemical and physical mechanism works the same," Borken-Kleefeld said. "If you want to adapt the study to Australia, I think you have to choose the right aircraft - this isn't a big deal because there's only two air companies globally, so it's either Boeing or Airbus that you're flying.
"The trickier variable is the amount of pollution that's coming out from the engines," he continued.
The result of the study was that air travel had the biggest impact on climate per person per distance traveled. The impact doubled when "short-term climate forcers," such as condensation trails that form behind traveling aircraft, such as the thin, wispy clouds called cirrus clouds that are sometimes visible from the ground, are taken into consideration.
Even a couple passengers in a small diesel car could leave a smaller footprint that the average bus or train, which have the least climate impact overall.
"Here we differentiate load factors so that if you look at the diagram you can read that, 'OK, this is the number of passengers in my car, this is my climate impact,'" Borken-Kleefeld said. "Now you can compare it and see what would be the equivalent if I traveled on a train or if I took the aircraft?"
When you remove the extra passengers from a vehicle, the impact per person increases.
"What the study does indicate is there's a fairly substantial climate impact saving from switching away from aircraft to trains or diesel coaches, so certainly this could be used as a starting point for further consideration for a high-speed rail option," Jago Dodson, the Director of the Urban Research Program at Griffith University, said.
Just make sure the bus or coaches are full to receive maximum climate impact savings.
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