Public Transportation, by Jane & Sara

June 8, 2020

Professor Walter Micarta of Harvard University has public transportation figured out. "Transportation clearly is one of the most important factors in our  daily lives, and we use it for a wide variety of purposes," says Micarta. We are overrelying on our cars and not realizing the fact that we are releasing carbon dioxide into the air. Two two main contributors to carbon dioxide emissions," Professor Micarta points out, "are transportation and heating/cooling. Americans, unlike Europeans, are not accustomed to using public transportation, but Mother Nature is telling us to do so now."

The average American drives 36 miles a day. They may not seem like a lot, but if you do the math that is 252 miles a week, about 1,080 miles a month, and 12,960 miles a year. Public transportation takes more people at a time, so it drives far fewer miles per year per capita than individual cars.


However, public transportation isn't just on land; cruise ships are bad for the environment. Every year millions of people go on cruise ships. Cruise ships run on heavy chemical-laden, oil-gas mixtures, which is far worse than gasoline. Cruise ships put concentrated sulfur, nitrogen, and other dangerous chemicals in the air. Cancer-causing soot particles from the ocean are put into the air by ships and spread around by the wind. If the ships ran on diesel, it would be a cleaner alternative but would cost more. Also, cruise ship companies can install exhaust filters on the ship so not all the chemicals would go into the air.


Global warming is caused by carbon dioxide emissions, and much of those emissions come from our transportation to work and during vacations. Professor Micarta suggests public transportation and local vacations that do not rely on air travel or cruise ships.