Documentary reveals “shocking truth” of transportation in NA

May 11, 2008   by Jozef Winter

At McMaster University, the Student Math Action Research Team (SMART), a group of students“making mathematics matter more for the environment and community”, have spent a number of years working on projects that create awareness of climate change and show us the impacts our daily lives have on the environment. Their most recent focus has been on personal transportation and they’ve put together a documentary titled “The Shocking Truth” highlighting the often unknown or misconceived data surrounding our use of cars, trucks, and SUVs. They’ve researched for 3 years now, and they’ve come to some interesting conclusions, and they have the numbers to back it up.

What first struck me was that in 2003, it was estimated that the world had 813 million vehicles, and that number is quickly approaching 1 billion. That’s a lot of cars, and it means that there are nearly enough personal vehicles for every 1 in 6 inhabitants of earth! The cars are not only becoming more numerous, but also less efficient. Between 1999 and 2004, CO2 emissions from personal transport increased 30% due to a shift of consumer demand towards SUVs, trucks, and vans, some of which produce 40% more CO2 than a mid-sized car. In fact they compared the vehicle product mixes of the US, Canada, Europe, and Japan, and found that under the same driving conditions and distances, the European mix would emit 100 tons of Co2, Japan 107 tons, Canada 118 tons, and the US a whopping 140 tons, 40% more than Europe. A shocking truth indeed.

An even more sobering statistic was that if everyone in Canada in 2003 had the same product mix as in the US and idled their car for 1 second every day for a year (or for 6m5s for one day), 7,235 tons of CO2 would be emitted. Since most of us sit in unmoving traffic or at lights for more than 6 minutes each day, the impact is enormous, and that’s when we are not even moving! Imagine what the US numbers would be (unfortunately we don’t have any data at the moment for the US), considering the population is 10 times that of its’ northern neighbors.

SMART asks us to be aware of what we drive, how we drive, and how far we drive, and they left us with 7 ways to help increase our fuel efficiency:

1. Avoid speeding (I know, it’s hard), reducing your speed from 120km/h (70mph) to 100kmh (60mph) can reduce your gasoline consumption by up to 20%

2. Use cruise control where possible. Maintaining a stable speed increases efficiency

3. Try not to use air conditioning. AC use can increase fuel burned by up to 20%

4. Adopt fuel efficient driving habits. Don’t accelerate quickly, break suddenly, etc.

5. Drive one long trip instead of many small ones. Long trips heat up engine parts, making it work more smoothly

6. Just leave your car at home! Or at least park partway, and walk or bike the rest of the distance

7. Put a reminder sticker on your dash, reminding you to not idle.

Some final quick hits from the documentary:

- 1 litre of gas burned creates 2.4kg of CO2 (1 gallon equals 19.96lbs of CO2)

- 417 litres (110 gallons) of gas is 1 Ton of C02

- Gasoline is roughly 86% carbon

- China added 11 million cars to their roads in 2005-2006