Transportation contemplation
It’s a silent night in Roche Harbor — a stark contrast to the tempest last night. Team JaMi is settled down to rest up for a big day on the water tomorrow. Team VaTo is clean and polished back at the labs, surely reveling in the broadband access at the Labs.
The highlight for me today was the afternoon class discussion of sustainability and the transportation sector. After I gave a brief motivational introduction, asking “How should sustainability scientists BE?,” Jason gave some statistics on the relative environmental impacts of different vehicles.
Here are some of the numbers Jason noted:
Mode of transport of freight within the U.S.:Â trucks 32%, rail 28%, water 16% — (that’s 76% diesel!)
gCO2 produced per ton-km for different vehicles: boat 15, rail 22, bus 30, heavy truck 90, motorcycle 120, car 275, light duty vehicle 400.
The teams this year have done a much better job of tracking the resources we use and the waste we generate while aboard the Gato Verde. I’m excited to read what sustainability improvements the students recommend and to finally quantify with metrics like g CO2/ton-km how Gato Verde compares to other human transportation technologies. With biodiesel emissions and production properly accounted for, will Gato Verde be close to the boat emmission rate or way below it?
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