How Does Clean Transportation Work?

Care2 Earth Month: Back to Basics

This year, Care2 decided to expand Earth Day into Earth Month, since there is so much to explore when it comes to the environment. Every day in April, we’ll have a post about some of the most important topics for the environment, exploring and explaining the basics. It’s a great tool to help you get started with helping the environment — or help explain it to others. See the whole series here.

Just what is “clean transportation,” anyway?

Clean transportation encompasses a lot of things – not just electric vehicles and renewable sources of fuel. Clean transportation is a movement dedicated to cutting CO2 emissions, reducing pollution, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and making the world a more pleasant place to live in.

It should surprise no one to learn that oil is the largest source of greenhouse gas pollution in the US. With scientific predictions of runaway climate change surfacing in new research around the globe, it’s more important than ever to think about the impact our transportation habits have on the world around us.

But that’s not the only thing we need to worry about: whether or not you believe in global warming, we should all be able to agree that pollution has negative effects on human health, wildlife and the environment. Breathing in polluted air can cause or worsen respiratory health issues — a fact everyone should find concerning.

And with the massive environmental damage caused by the oil industry over the past few decades, it should be clear to everyone that gas just isn’t a clean or safe energy source. And don’t forget: oil is not a renewable resource. Once it’s all used up, we won’t have anything to run our cars on – unless we can find a workable alternative fuel. That’s where biodiesel, hydrogen fuel cells, electric cars and hybrid vehicles come in.

Transitional steps toward cleaner vehicles

We obviously aren’t going to be able to make the leap entirely to electric vehicles overnight – that’s why an important part of clean transportation initiatives involves improving the fuel efficiency of existing cars.

There’s also been a fair bit of controversy over biofuels. For one thing, if we’re using edible crops (or displacing edible crops from fields), what are people in developing countries going to eat? Corn-based biofuels aren’t cost-effective to produce. They pollute the environment as badly as oil, and they impact food prices. But prairie grass, which could be an incredibly effective source of biomass, doesn’t exactly have the clout of a big agricultural lobby behind it.

Biofuels are one of the most promising developments in clean transportation in recent years, despite the bitter political battles currently surrounding them.

Cleaner transportation here and now

If you want to do all you can to help the environment, you don’t need to become a climate scientist or invent the next breakthrough in clean energy to do it. There are a few practical changes you can make in your everyday life to support sustainable, green transportation:

If you can afford it and it’s practical for your driving needs, buy a hybrid or electric vehicle. Investing in this burgeoning market will help fund the development of new, sustainable transportation technology.
If you can’t afford a new car, try taking public transportation when available. It’s better for the environment and your wallet. As an added bonus, you won’t have to worry about traffic during rush hour – if you’re taking the bus, the driver can worry about it for you, and if you’re lucky enough to have commuter rail available, it might even be faster than driving.
Bike, walk, and run instead of driving, especially if you’re only going a short distance. You’ll be producing zero emissions and getting in better shape – there’s really no downside.
Contact your state and local representatives. Let them know you want them to support clean energy initiatives. Even if – perhaps especially if – they don’t agree with you.
Get active in your local community and encourage others to use their cars less. Organize and participate in green events. Get others excited and involved.

How do your environmental values inform the transportation you use? Do you ride the bus? Bike to work? Let us know in the comments.

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Photo credit: David Megginson

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Yulan L.

1:36AM PST on Mar 2, 2013

Thanks.

March 2
send a green star

Terry V.

4:32PM PST on Dec 24, 2012

thanks

December 24
send a green star

Protap C.

9:03AM PDT on Aug 3, 2012

YES I WALK TO WORK, USE PUBLIC TRANSPORT WHEN POSSIBLE, AND ALWAYS EXPLAIN OTHERS WHY I'M DOING SO.

August 3
send a green star

Chi W.

9:15PM PDT on Jun 13, 2012

Welcome to the solar hydrogen economy via The Phoenix Hydrogen Co-op

which of the following global problems do you think is most pressing
climate change
peak oil
or both

Climate change is a state of play where the earth's climate is suppose to be heating up. In summer it seem's to be global warming and in winter it seem's to be global cooling. Some scientists say it is real and some scientists say it is full of shit

peak oil is where we have already used the first 50% of world crude oil supplies, which happen some time between 2000 and 2010. And now we are on the downhill slide towards the end of crude oil and a end of gasoline and diesel

there is a solution to both of these's problems and that solution is the solar hydrogen economy.

The Phoenix Hydrogen Co-op is a not for profit movement to build the solar hydrogen economy, which is build on the energy transformation. Of sunshine in the Australian desert into electricity via solar panels and using this solar electricity to split sea water into the elements of hydrogen and oxygen. We can release the oxygen into the atmosphere and store the hydrogen as fuel

Solar Hydrogen Gas has three times the energy content when compared with fossil fuel on a kilogram per kilogram bases or a pound for pound ratio.

Solar Hydrogen Gas combusts into fresh water when reacted with oxygen in a internal combustion engine or in a fuel cell

June 13
send a green star

federico b.

9:45AM PDT on Apr 19, 2012

Grazie per le informazioni.

April 19
send a green star

9:44AM PDT on Apr 19, 2012

g d c.

2:03PM PDT on Apr 14, 2012

April 14
send a green star

Marsha M.

10:48AM PDT on Apr 10, 2012

We really need to get started with clean transportation ASAP. I think this is our Titanic moment and climate change is our iceberg. Some say it's clean energy is an unproven technology, stick with what works. Oil and coal werle unproven techonologies at one time too. We have a chance to avoid the iceberg; do we have the will?

April 10
send a green star

Bala S.

8:07AM PDT on Apr 7, 2012

Why not start with the equatorial countries ( where the sun is most powerful) build and produce electricity using the concentrated solar power technology? Their electric power utilities can also distribute their output to the rest of the world using buried cables (not unlike the gas & oil pipe-lines). In time the efficiency of the power-distribution can be increased using super-smart-grids and super-conductivity technologies. We can build battery swapping stations (not unlike the gas stations) where batteries can be swapped, instead of waiting to re-charge. In less than 5 years we can retrofit all our bio-fuel transportation vehicles into electric-powered systems. This will save our planet, make us healthy, stop wars, eliminate budget and trade deficits and most importantly create jobs that are sustainable.