Futurology

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Planes, trains, or automobiles: Which has the lowest carbon footprint? (pv-magazine-usa.com)

submitted 2 years ago by genesis@kbin.social to c/Futurology@kbin.social

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Three industry professionals traveled 3,000 miles across America. Their mission: to dissect their carbon footprint. What they found was a complex calculation, with results more tightly-knit than anticipated – and a CO2 revelation.

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[–] athos77@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

The article takes into consideration quite a number of considerations, and concludes that - for the very specific journey that the authors took and were analyzing - their train journey actually "cost" over 366kg more CO2 emissions per person than a plane would have been. That said, it did note that

Thanks to the absence of jet contrails and their associated water vapor emissions – a major component of non-CO2 radiative forcing – we estimate that our total climate impact was 37% less than if we had flown, even if our CO2 emissions were 28% higher.

Regarding making the same journey by car, they say:

Carpooling from Boston, whether in an internal combustion gas engine or an electric vehicle, emerged as the least emission-intensive travel option for this journey. Additionally, driving could be a faster alternative to Amtrak if the team rotated driving responsibilities and continued without extended breaks. [Snipping a bunch of their considerations here, but feel free to read the article.] Consequently, emissions for each traveler in the electric vehicle stand at just over 18% of the equivalent emissions from a direct flight and 25% of the emissions from the predominantly diesel-powered train journey.

[–] zoe 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Consequently, emissions for each traveler in the electric vehicle stand at just over 18% of the equivalent emissions from a direct flight and 25% of the emissions from the predominantly diesel-powered train journey.

u could repurpose a 800Kwh Tesla Semi and turn it into a Tesla bus, in case u can't run electric trains everywhere, and want to benefit from electric transportation without it costing a leg, all while still consolidating travel, and thus minimizing emissions. electric cars charged with fossil generated electricity save on 33% of carbon emissions, compared to gasoline cars. u would achieve the rest 66% by using solar generated electricity instead.