Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, (2019, November) Reducing Your Transportation Footprint, Retrieved from: https://www.c2es.org/content/reducing-your-transportation-footprint/
There are multiple sections within this page. First, transportation-based carbon dioxide emissions are addressed. First it was stated that one gallon of gas equates to roughly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, which is roughly 6 to 9 tons of carbon dioxide per car per year. After stating this, multiple solutions are suggested. The first solution is purchasing more gas efficient cars. In this solution, the customer must simply find the car with the best gas per mile ratio, which would lower how many gallons of gasoline is used, and in turn how much carbon dioxide is produced per year. The next solution is transfering to electric vehicles entirely. This article states that this transfer, while costly to begin with, would pay off both financially and environmentally in the long run, as there would be very little carbon dioxide emissions and refueling costs. The next solution is public transportation, which would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by reducing the amount of vehicles in use as a whole. The last solution that was provided is biking or walking when possible, which would eliminate the use of cars entirely for those who do not need to use them.
All of these solutions are very viable options to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and I do not think just one should be implemented. I believe that every one of these solutions should be used in their own ways. For people who must drive cars in their daily lives, upgrading to a more fuel efficient car, or upgrading to a hybrid or electric car is the best option. By doing this, these people can still travel in their daily lives but are also being more eco friendly. For those who live in more urbanized areas, public transportation as well as walking or biking is the best option. In these settings they do not need to use a car on a daily basis, and can instead use these methods to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions and their expenditures being allocated towards their cars.
I think what you stated about all the solutions is great. But I also think that a good combination of some of those solutions would work even better. For electrically powered trains.
This was very interesting to read. The statistic about one gallon of gas equating to 20 pounds of carbon dioxide really caught my eye, as well as 6 to 9 tons of carbon released per year. This shows how taking cars off the road or even getting cars to change to electric could be huge. My question is should we only implement electric cars in areas that produce electricity cleanly or everywhere?
I totally agree with everything you’ve said here. I think that everyone taking these smaller steps in their daily lives is essential to ultimately tackling the larger issue of climate change. My question would be what do you think could be done to get people past the high initial cost?
I also agree that multiple paths need to be taken to solve this issue, but do you see people actually changing their lives to help?