A new study that has examined all greenhouse gas emissions created by different modes of transportation concludes that supposedly green methods of travel, such as trains, may actually produce as many or more emissions as flying. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, said that while a large jet produces three times as many greenhouse gases per mile as a train during operation, the two modes of transport actually generate about the same amount of greenhouse gases per mile when the manufacture of steel rails and other train infrastructure is taken into account. Using this measure, cars generally were the highest greenhouse gas emitters per mile, with the exception of off-peak, largely empty buses, which had emissions levels per passenger mile exceeding even SUVs. Reporting their findings in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the scientists said planners should look beyond what comes out of the tailpipe and work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation infrastructure by using such materials as low carbon dioxide cement.
Train Travel May Produce More Emissions than Flying, Study Says
More From E360
-
Cities
‘Sponge City’: How Copenhagen Is Adapting to a Wetter Future
-
INTERVIEW
On Controlling Fire, New Lessons from a Deep Indigenous Past
-
Solutions
Paying the People: Liberia’s Novel Plan to Save Its Forests
-
OPINION
Forest Service Plan Threatens the Heart of an Alaskan Wilderness
-
INTERVIEW
Pakistan’s Solar Revolution Is Bringing Power to the People
-
Food & Agriculture
In Uganda, Deadly Landslides Force an Agricultural Reckoning
-
Energy
Why U.S. Geothermal May Advance, Despite Political Headwinds
-
Food & Agriculture
In War Zones, a Race to Save Key Seeds Needed to Feed the World
-
Climate
Lightning Strikes the Arctic: What Will It Mean for the Far North?
-
RIVERS
A Win for Farmers and Tribes Brings New Hope to the Klamath
-
Solutions
Deconstructing Buildings: The Quest for New Life for Old Wood
-
NATURAL DEFENSES
How Restored Wetlands Can Protect Europe from Russian Invasion