Sustainable Living: Thoughts on Personal Transportation and GHG

These are thoughts that I had on this topic.

Fact:

1.) Burning of fossil fuels leads to release of CO2.
2.) CO2 is a greenhouse gas that leads to warming of the planet, and all of us are directly responsible through the burning of CO2.

Therefore 480 gallons of gas releases 9600 lb of CO2 per year.

Since we have to reduce our carbon emissions by a lot, why don't I arbitrarily ask if it is possible to reduce emission by 90%, that is go from 9600 lb of CO2/year to only 960 lb of CO2/year. We need a 10-fold improvement in GHG emissions reductions

What are possible menu options one could chose from to get to this point?

1.) Reduce the distance from home to work

The fold improvement is a direct result of how much closer one can move to work.

For instance, if one were to reduce the distance to commute to work by half, this would lead to a 2-fold reduction in GHG emisions. There are other side benefits of moving closer to work which include reduced car maintenance costs, and  simply quality of life due to spending less time driving to work. Granted, moving closer is not always an option. So that's why there are other options.

Then how else can I decrease the attributable GHG emissions?

2.) Car pool

If you car pool, you are essentially leaving at least one car at home. And GHG emisions that a given car is releasing can be divided by the number of people riding in it. If you just car pool with one more person, the fold factor is 2 per day that you car pool. If you don't know anyone at work, apps like Waze carpool can even help you find someone on an occasional basis, and the upside is that the car pooler will compensate you monetarily to reduce your commute costs. Just know that the point of Waze carpool is not to earn an income from it that pays for life, but simply to compensate the driver for the use of the car.

3.) Buy a more efficient vehicle

If you are on the market for a new vehicle, it would make sense to buy a more efficient vehicle.

New cars now get on average 30 mpg. That's a 1.2-fold improvement.
But given the urgent nature, why not do better? A hybrid car on average gets 50 mpg. That's a 2-fold improvement.

Plug-in vehicles and EVs if driven in EV mode (like the Honda Clarity PHEV) get about 110 mpge. As technology improves, there is a potential to (in the future) reach 150 mpg. That's a whopping 4.4-fold improvement with a potential to reach a 6-fold improvement. This calculation may be a bit oversimplistic though.

Another way to calculate the fold reductions is by considering that

As an owner of a Honda Clarity PHEV, I have to say that driving in electric mode has other benefits apart from just GHG reductions. There is the pure emotional satisfaction derived from silent, instant, linear torque that EVs offer. The network of charging stations in convenient locations is another big plus in light of $4 gasoline. Electricity is definitely cheaper.

From here, I can see that technology gets us pretty far, but alone it will not by itself get us all the way. And what can you do if you are not on the market for a new car?

4.) Bike to work

Biking to work gives you 270 mpge (a 10.8 fold increase) on the low end conservative estimate because the food you eat requires energy to be delivered to you. Biking to work on an ebike gives you 570 mpge (a 22.8 fold increase) because the electric motor is 80% efficient as opposed to relying only on your own metabolism.

Note: Just by biking to work every day, you would already meet the goal of reducing commuting GHG emissions by 10-fold - WITH TODAY'S technology!

Biking to work every day of course is unrealistic for most of us (e.g.: child pickup etc.). What if I were to mix and match the menu options?

Let's say that I buy a PHEV with 110 mpge. I drive to work 2 times a week and car pool those days, and I try to ride to work 3 times a week on my ebike. How many fold have I reduced GHG emissions by?

(4*2 *2 +10.8*3)/5 = 9.68 fold improvement

So a combination of car pooling, biking and driving a much more efficient car can get us very close to the 10-fold improvement we all need to do.

 

UPDATE 2020-10-12: When I write this article a year ago or so, we were still in pre-pandemic times. Now that we are in pandemic times, I have been forced to work from home. This little change in itself has been the largest source of carbon savings for my family this year, because we have reduced the carbon emissions from commuting by 100%. Ultimately, the point of this article still stands: technological innovations available today that individuals can support will take us part of the way to the goal of a 10-fold reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Technological changes alone will not be sufficient, but life changes are needed.