One Reply to “CO2 by Travel Mode: The Thanksgiving Edition”

  1. the graphic is not pollution, just energy consumed per passenger-mile (or efficiency, as it states)
    those four routes have vastly different types of pollutants emitted (variable human and planet toxicity) and emit those pollutants at far different rates.
    bottom line…per passenger mile cars have less accute human toxicity because of extensive catalytic breakdown of partially combusted hydrocarbons.
    Diesel trains actually are quite toxic for those who live near the lines.
    The attached article does a slightly better job by ginning up some CO2 emissions per passenger mile, but in reality those vary quite a bit, and there is nothing to suggest the article’s pollution numbers are a true average of the wild and wooley reality.

    So lets call a spade a spade… the single person automobile is inefficient and air travel is inefficient and polluting, but high speed or intercity rail moves the most people with the least energy and greenhouse gas production (although it can be quite toxic), but all of this depends on 100 factors we cant realistically control for.

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