This video is sponsored by Brilliant, if you
stick around until the end, I’ll give you a link to get 20% off a premium membership! For many people, summer means travel. And whether it’s going home to visit family
or exploring a new place, travel means using some form of fossil fuel reliant transportation. But the problem I’ve encountered as I browse
through the various train, plane, and bus tickets have been finding out which is the
greenest option. When I look towards news headlines, climate
activists like Greta Thunberg seem to be flocking towards trains as a way to travel without
an excessive carbon impact, but does a long 24-hour train ride have less of an emissions
footprint than a 2-hour flight? I feel like it’s important to at least try
and figure out some environmental guidelines for deciding which transport option to take,
especially when considering that in 2014 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
reported that the transportation sector accounts for 23% of the world’s total greenhouse
gas emissions. So, today I have a simple question: when traveling,
which form of transportation requires the least emissions? Unfortunately, the answer to that question
is not-so-simple. The carbon footprint of planes, trains, and
cars depend on a number of contextual factors like infrastructure, the build of the vehicle
(like electric or diesel), location, and distance. So instead of trying to decide on the ultimate
form of green transportation, we’re going to look at how various factors, including
distance and number of passengers in the vehicle, change the emission footprint of different
transport modes. So, let’s start with a relatively short
distance: a quick business trip between Toronto and New York City. National Geographic looked at the various
transportation options, and according to their number crunching, the plane wins the award
for shortest distance traveled at, 352 miles or 566 km, with cars and buses taking second
place at 472 miles or 759 km, and trains chugging along in last place with a 544 mile or 875
km transit. So, planes have drastically less distance
to travel, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to fewer emissions. Instead, if we look at the amount of passengers
transported per trip combined with the gasoline fuel equivalent of the mode of transportation,
we get some surprising numbers. According to National Geographic, the electric
car is by far the most efficient fuel-wise, but taking the bus also requires fairly low
emissions. It gets pretty interesting when we switch
our attention to planes, traditional cars, and trains. National Geographic pins the total CO2 per
passenger for a plane trip at 75.3kg and claims a train requires 84.3 kg. But these numbers vary a little bit depending
on how it's calculated. Part of the reason why a train can be so emissions
intensive is that many trains still run on diesel. In this case, the train that reaches almost
all the way to Toronto from New York is the Empire Service, which uses a dual-mode engine,
that runs primarily on diesel, but switches to electric when it reaches Penn-Station. So, in short, the best way to travel between
Toronto and New York is by bus if you don’t own an electric vehicle, and the worst is
via a flight or train. But what about longer distances? Do things change? Especially when you consider that a lot of
a plane’s emissions come from taxiing, take-off, and landing, it seems like the longer the
distance traveled the more efficient the flight becomes. According to a peer-reviewed report by the
Union of Concerned Scientists, the emissions associated with a 1,000 mile or 1609 km solo
trip reveals some interesting conclusions. Taking the bus is still by far the best option
due its ability to transport a large amount of passengers on a comparably small amount
of gas. Shockingly, however, flying in an economy
seat has roughly the same carbon emissions associated with it when compared to a typical
Amtrak train. As flights get longer, and if the flight is
non-stop, the carbon load becomes smaller per mile, but if you’re flying out of a
congested airport with constant delays like Chicago’s O’Hare, that footprint can balloon
in size. Essentially, the more time the plane spends
in the air going from point A to B, and the less time it spends taxiing or circling the
airport waiting for runway clearance, the more efficient it will be. Ultimately, the “greenness” of travel
is heavily dependent on context. There is no hard and fast answer to the best
form of travel for the environment. But, if you are in desperate need of a rule
of thumb here’s a tentative green transport line up for a solo traveler: In general, a
bus is better than a train is better than a plane which trumps the average car and SUV. But that order can vary depending on distance
traveled and amount of passengers within that car. Ideally, an application like google maps could
calculate the various emissions associated with your particular route and transportation
options. That way you’d be able to quickly understand
the environmental consequences of your trip. Right now, however, we have to rely on carbon
footprint calculators like Terrapass or Tripzero, which can be a bit clunky and confusing to
use. At the end of the day, we can only do so much
to minimize our carbon footprint when traveling. Calculators and catching a greyhound are great,
but innovations for infrastructure and technology are necessary in order to quickly decouple
emissions from transportation. Rapid electrification of cars, buses, and
trains and the creation of a reliable clean energy grid will make the uncertain process
of green transportation much more certain. One of the cornerstones of any clean energy
grid is solar power. And in order to understand how to best harness
the output from the Sun, we need to understand the physics behind this renewable resource. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about physics,
or for that matter, how a solar panel works. But luckily, Brilliant has an amazing course
on the physics of Solar panels. Brilliant is a problem-solving website that
lets you explore the world of math and science by not just watching stuff, but doing stuff. And that’s exactly what you’ll get when
you dive into their Solar Energy course. This course is awesome because you’re not
just sitting back and reading, instead Brilliant peppers in all sorts of quizzes to keep you
engaged and learning. Ultimately, if you’re like me and like to
learn through experience and interaction, Brilliant is the way to go. So, if you want to start learning about the
physics behind solar energy, go to brilliant dot org slash OCC, or click the link in the
description, and sign up for free. As a bonus, the first 200 people that go to
that link will get 20% off their annual premium membership. Hey, everyone! Charlie here. Thanks for making it all the way to the end
of the video. I just want to give a quick shout to all my
patreon supporters, who’ve helped me make this YouTube channel into a full-time pursuit. Thank you thank you thank you, and I will
see you in two weeks!
