Our Planet is Gasping for Breath! Here’s a third remedy that we’re all becoming familiar with!

The  solution for this 3rd Blog has to do with our TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS. Why?  Because Project Drawdown states that “adding all of the transportation systems together they are responsible for 14% of the  greenhouse emissions!”

Here is a list of the elements of transportation that Project Drawdown is concerned with: BICYCLE INFRASTRUCTURE, CARPOOLING, EFFICIENT AVIATION, EFFICIENT OCEAN SHIPPING. EFFICIENT TRUCKS, ELECTRIC BICYCLES, ELECTRIC CARS, ELECTRIC TRAINS, HIGH-SPEED RAIL, HYBRID CARS, PUBLIC TRANSIT, TELEPRESENCE AND WALKABLE CITIES.

The key question, as posed by Project Drawdown, is, “How can we support our mobility, but end its dependency on petroleum?”  The answers are; find alternatives, create fuel efficiency, and electrification.

Here are two examples of what this can mean.  Again, according to Project Drawdown, “currently the Trucking Industry consumes 25% of the fuel we use, using 550 billion gallons of diesel fuel each year. Worldwide, it is responsible for 6% of all emissions, and that number is growing!  Working on this venue could reduce emissions by 4.61-9.7 gigatons and ultimately save the industry $3.5-6.1 trillion on fuel costs over truck lifetimes!”

Electric cars, (such as my Prius Plug-in Hybrid, which recently gave me 3,700 miles over 15 months on one fuel fill-up purchased on December 15, 2019) will similarly reduce emissions. Project Drawdown’s estimate of electric car fuel reduction is 11.87-15.68 gigatons and an ultimate saving of $15.30-21.82 Trillion in fuel costs.

Our collective job, as citizens of our ‘global village’ is to shift our attention to the following: Public and pooled mass transit (making more seats available), enhanced mechanical improvements, greater fuel efficiency, and improvements such as lightweighting, better overall design and more artful operational features. 

Transportation is crucial to our personal and work lives.  However, it is now clear that we must make its use a positive force for our climate!  The truth is that without making these changes we are creating the forces for our own demise and the demise of all of our flora and fauna!   We each have to decide what our role in this effort is going to be.  Looking again at the list of Project Drawdown’s transportation projects, there is certainly something there for all of us!

This post is part of a series on Project Drawdown, which conducts an ongoing review and analysis of climate solutions—the practices and technologies that can stem and begin to reduce the excess of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Learn more about how you can take action at https://www.drawdown.org/solutions