Peggy,
--- Peggy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hello Keith,
>
> Although this article makes some good points, it may be neglecting
> the
> philosophy applies to school bus use. The number of vehicles
> necessary
> to carry students in small numbers (one, two, or three) is still more
> fuelish than transporting a larger number of students in a "mass
> transit" mode.
This much is certainly true.
> The "cheap flights" offer an alternative to vehicle
> use
> thereby saving all those related environmental concerns. I, for one,
> have saved a great deal of time and money by utilizing cheap flights
> and
> feel that it has been helpful in reducing auto use.
This is an erroneous argument. You will probably have contributed more
to global pollution by flying than by driving. Some years ago I read an
in-depth article about the fuel consumption of aeroplanes versus cars,
and as a broad generalisation a Boeing 747 flying from London to New
York will consume about the same amount of fuel as if _every_ single
passenger were driving that distance (about 3000 miles) in a separate
car. Of course, the average number of occupants in a car will be
greater than one, which means that on the basis of fuel consumption
alone, it would be better to drive.
There are of course many provisos here. For starters, aeroplanes have
become more efficient since then, although not by an enormous factor.
They might also not be full, which would make their fuel consumption
per passenger worse. And a lot of fuel is used in taking off and
gaining altitude, so shorter journeys are even less efficient than a
relatively long journey such as New York to London. And perhaps more
importantly, you have to consider the energy of manufacture of a car,
which is typically more than is used in fuel in its entire lifetime. I
simply do not know how much energy is used in manufacturing a plane,
but I suspect it is vastly _less_ than it uses in fuel due to the much
higher distances travelled and the longer lifespan.
So as a general rule, buses and trains are much better than cars over
short distances, and much better than planes over medium distances,
whereas planes are best left to journeys where for example an ocean
must be crossed, or the time to travel even on a fast train would be
impractical. My experience is that trains take you from city centre to
city centre, whereas planes require a time-consuming journey at each
end to get to your final destination. The flight time may be quicker,
but the overall journey time is only quicker for journeys longer than
about 5 or 6 hours.
> But then, I also
> promote remote viewing which doesn't cost a penny. Ha! What are
> your
> alternatives?
Indeed - not totally free from energy consumption, but vastly better
than travelling.
> Yes, I know the answer will be email, teleconferencing, fax,
> telephone,
> and postal service. But then, the face-to-face meeting is sometimes
> invaluable as well as being able to help our groups set up their
> biofuels coalitions. When we go to a location, we participate in
> town
> meetings, appointments with bankers, government officials, and a
> variety
> of other influential meetings that can make a difference in funding
> for
> biofuels projects. I am very pleased to take advantage of "cheap
> flights".
There can be no doubt about the value of face to face meetings, and I
would say the most realistic strategy from an energy point of view is
not to try to eliminate them altogether, but to reduce their frequency
and encourage travel to be done by more efficient means.
Regards,
Donald
> Best wishes,
> Peggy
>
=====
--
43 - slightly more than the answer to life, the universe and everything.
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