Before I read Transport Troubles, I had not heard so many cold hard facts about the effect of transport on the environment and climate change. Wiederkehr & Caid certainly made it clear to me that something seriously needs to be done about our relaxed attitudes into going 'green'. Since transports emergence about a century ago, it has taken a brutal toll on the Earth's environment, a toll much heavier than I thought.
I came across the term 'decoupling' often after reading up on sustainability which essentially means slowing, if not reversing, the growth in environmentally damaging activities in relation to economic expansion. The world in so many areas is moving towards 'decoupling' except apparently for transport. Yes, technologies have gotten cleaner, but that is cancelled out by the huge increasing stock of vehicles. The fleet of road vehicles across the world currently grows at about twice the rate of the population. How is that even possible?
Air pollution, land-take, road and air fatalities: we have all become used to all of this or even see it as a sign of progress. That really is the problem, we have all become so comfortable with way technology has emerged we haven't taken enough time at all to see it's effects. Take traveling for example. Traveling is something I just love. I have traveled a lot since I was young and I hope to have a job in fashion one day that involves a lot of travel. Air travel is my favourite. Air transport creates a potent greenhouse gas while it is up in the air. Aviation is quickly becoming the fastest mode for movement of both freight and people, so its global warming effect may exceed that of trucks or cars by 2030. But a business-as-usual attitude to transport is not on. There needs to be a clear division between travel, mobility and communications from travel itself. Over the last century the motorized movement of people and goods increased more than one hundredfold, while the total human population increased fourfold.
Keeping in mind just how many vehicles there are in the world and times it by the atmospheric emissions that are released and the resources used, its an unthinkable amount! Fuel type is important. Diesel is consumed at a higher rate than petrol these days due to freight traffic. Although diesel engines are more fuel-efficient than petrol engines, and with lower COZ emissions per km, they produce more particulates and chemicals.
I always comment at the fumes that choke out of my dad's Toyota Land Cruiser which ends up in long discussions about pollution with an end all result of...pfft on both our sides. But its an obvious concern, the emission of greenhouse gases and air pollutants that damage health and the environment. Transport contributes to 20% of CO^sub2^ form burning of fossil fuels worldwide. That rate doesn't even include vehicle manufacture, road construction and disposal. Certain smog is created too which harms almost all biological tissue, damaging plants and penetrating deep into the respiratory tracts of animals. They also deeply affects us and our health. Apparently the pollution levels are much higher inside a car than outside? If that doesn't disturb me then i don't know what would?
What about roads? Roads affect ecosystems, interfere with natural drainage and block species migration. 93% of the total area of land in the UK is taken up by road networks. What about energy use? 20% of energy use is for transport. Transport is the main use of oil, accounting for some 60% of the amount extracted used as fuel, in production, maintenance and disposal of vehicles and infrastructure.
Where does this fit in with my processes as a designer? I guess I have to really think about how much traveling my textiles and garments have to do to get from A to B. Locally would be better than international, distance, routes, destinations: they all would have to be thought of in much more depth than i first would have out the effort in to. Transport is inevitable but how are we going to start minimising its affects to the earth drastically?
(Resources: Wiederkehr, P., & Caid. N. (2002). Transport troubles. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.The OECD Observer,(233), 43-46. Retrieved August 18, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 199554461).
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