Summer 2009
Letters
An Even Greener Travel Option?
I enjoyed the article in the spring 2009 issue of Catalyst titled “Getting There Greener” and particularly the discussion of train travel to a ballpark. The table accompanying this article, however, has an error. Camden Yards in Baltimore is directly adjacent to Camden Station, with less than 500 feet between the ballpark and the train. Pennsylvania Station, the other train station in Baltimore, is about 2.5 miles from Camden Yards.
Edward P. Caffarella
Cortland, NY
The author responds:
You are correct about the proximity of light-rail access to the ballpark, but the distances cited in the article indicate proximity to stations with Amtrak service specifically (since we were comparing that transportation option with plane travel into a given city). As you suggest, however, public transit is often the best way to get to and from a ballpark—regardless of how you traveled to the city.
Scott Nathanson, national field organizer
Clean Vehicles Program
The High Cost of First Class
I am puzzled by the sidebar “A Tale of Two Vacations” in the spring 2009 issue [“Getting There Greener,”]. An explanation of the almost four-fold difference in carbon emissions between the two air travel options—first class with a layover being the “High-Carbon Vacation”—would have been helpful. Surely the difference is not, as one might conclude, between first class and coach. Is it from the hotel layover?
Michael Furey
Blacksburg, VA
The author responds:
The emissions difference is a result of two factors: 1) the extra distance traveled due to multiple flight legs and 2) the first-class seating. The first factor is straightforward: a direct flight from Chicago to Orlando totals 1,005 miles (one way), but adding a layover in Houston increases the distance to 1,778 miles. As for the second factor, first-class seats take up twice as much room in the cabin as coach seats, so they are responsible for twice the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Using data from government and commercial sources, we calculated that the CO2 associated with coach air travel on a typical narrow-body jet (assuming an industry average of 80 percent occupancy) is approximately 0.384 pound of CO2 per mile traveled, plus 33 pounds per seat associated with the takeoff, landing, and ground operations of each leg. For first-class air travel, both numbers are doubled.
Thus, the “lower-carbon vacation” (direct flight, coach seating) generates almost 419 pounds of CO2 per person each way, or 3,349 pounds round-trip for a family of four. The “high-carbon vacation” (layover, first-class seating) generates 1,497 pounds of CO2 per person each way, or 11,972 pounds round-trip for a family of four—more than 3.5 times the emissions of the lower-carbon option.
Scott Nathanson
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