Tips to Green Your Travel

(From UCS Greentips) – Holidays mean family and fun, but they also mean more travel in planes, trains, and automobiles, which contribute to global warming by emitting carbon dioxide.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), Americans take 54 percent more long-distance trips (50 miles or longer) during the Thanksgiving holiday than the rest of the year, and 23 percent more between Christmas and New Year’s.

Unless you can walk or bike, you can’t travel carbon-free.  But you can minimize your emissions with these simple strategies:

• Pad your schedule.  If possible, start your trip a day earlier and/or return a day later.  You’ll not only avoid the stress associated with peak travel times, but reduce emissions as well.  For example, when a car is stuck in traffic its fuel consumption rate can be double the rate at steady cruising speeds.  If you must travel on peak days (most weekends), schedule your trip for non-peak hours and, if driving, use a GPS system with real-time traffic monitoring to avoid congested roads.
• Traveling with family? Make it a road trip.  The BTS reports that 91 percent of long-distance holiday travelers go by car.  On a 500-mile trip, a family of four traveling in a typical SUV actually produces less carbon per person than flying or taking the train.  If you can, though, leave the SUV at home and drive a hybrid or fuel-efficient conventional car instead—in addition to consuming more gas, SUVs emit up to four times more carbon than the most efficient hybrid. If you don’t own a hybrid, consider renting one.
• Fly the eco-friendly skies.  First-class seating requires twice the space of coach and therefore produces twice the amount of carbon emissions per passenger, so always choose coach.  Next, minimize the length of your trip by flying the most direct route, and minimize carbon-heavy takeoffs, landings, and ground operations by flying nonstop.  If you’re traveling solo, flying nonstop coach is actually better than driving any car—regardless of the distance traveled.
• Get on the bus.  No matter how many people are traveling with you, a bus pays the biggest environmental dividends.  A couple traveling by bus, for instance, generates between 50 and 75 percent less carbon than flying or driving (especially on trips under 500 miles).  Bus fares are often cheaper than airline tickets, and many now have similar amenities.

For more green traveling strategies, read the UCS report Getting There Greener: The Guide to Your Lower-Carbon Vacation (see Related Resources).

Related Resources
Union of Concerned Scientists—Getting There Greener

Bureau of Transportation Statistics—U.S. Holiday Travel

Why is 350 ppm So Important?

Have you heard the buzz about 350?  350.org is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the global climate crisis.  In anticipation of the December 2009 meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, where leaders from every nation are gathering to finalize a new global climate change agreement, 350.org has established October 24, 2009, as a day of action for people around the world to show their support for the goal of 350.

350?

The number 350 represents 350 parts per million (ppm), identified by some of the world’s leading climate scientists as the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide (CO₂) in our atmosphere.  We’re currently at 386 ppm, and this number is rising by about 2 parts per million each year.  350.org is harnessing the power of the Internet to coordinate a planetary day of action on October 24, 2009, to unite the public, media, and our political leaders behind the goal of attaining and stabilizing at a level of not more than 350 ppm of CO₂ in the atmosphere.

During the past 20 years, about three-quarters of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, most of which is carbon dioxide, came from the burning of fossil fuels.  Thus, it’s very important to reduce our energy consumption and increase our use of renewable energy sources if we want to reduce carbon dioxide and total greenhouse gas emissions. Be sure to check out our Energy Savers site for ways to save energy and use renewable energy.

350 is a relatively new target being discussed in the scientific community.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supports 450 ppm.  Yet climate change impacts are occurring at rates much faster than earlier predicted and some scientists have concluded that we are already above the safe zone at our current level.  They believe that unless we are able to rapidly return to 350 ppm this century, we risk reaching tipping points that lead to unprecedented natural disasters.

At the last UN climate negotiations in Poland at the end of 2008, the 350 target began to attract more endorsers as new scientific reports and evidence of early impacts made it clear that we are already above the safe level for CO2.  In his annual speech, Nobel laureate Al Gore told delegates to the most recent climate negotiating session that we must now ‘toughen our goal’ to 350 ppm.

By John Lippert, an employee of Energy Enterprise Solutions, a contractor for EERE. He assists with technical reviews of content on the Energy Savers Web site.