April 21st, 2009
Flying Verses Driving – The Ethical Transport Debate
At the end of the day, the best way to get about for our bodies and our environment is always going to be under our own steam. Left to our own devises, who wouldn’t want to travel this way? After all in many cases the journey is as much an experience as the destination. Unfortunately for us, despite all of our time saving devises, time is always critical. We can seldom afford the luxury of walking, cycling and smelling the flowers on route . Time is very often money; we need to get to where we are going quickly, efficiently and hopefully with as little impact on the environment as we can possible get away with.
Driving in a relatively fuel-efficient car (25-30 miles per gallon) usually generates fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than flying. According to the environmental website Grist.org, a trip of around 300 miles, would generate about 104 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) in a typical medium-sized car, regardless of the number of passengers. Flying that same distance on a commercial jet would produce some 184 kilograms of CO2 per passenger.
From an economical standpoint however, the high price of fuel means that it would be far more cost efficient to hop on a cheap internal flight than to drive a long distance. Of course, you would also have to factor in the time spent in restaurants and hotels along the way and of course the extra time it would take to get there.
Perhaps before over analyzing the best way to get somewhere, we should first spend some time considering exactly where we are going and why….