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Something that changed all our lives about 100 years ago
was the car.
First it was great and if we were only talking about how
convenient and easy it is, then we could still say that it was great but...cars are not good for the environment so its important to look at TRANSPORT when we are trying to be sustainable.
Ok - so what is wrong with our transport system? |
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It causes huge amounts of pollution in the form of...
 and cars run on oil, which is a finite fuel and very destructive to extract.
On top of that there is the problem of traffic jams - filling
up the roads and producing even more pollution due to the longer journey times.
Abominable aeroplanes, |
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Brilliant buses, |
| Horrible HGVs, |
Terrific
trains, |
| Awful
automobiles, |
Crazy cycles, |
| Dreadful
juggernauts, |
Excellent
electric bikes |
| Lugging
lorries, |
Brainy barges, |
| Carcinogenic
cars. |
Tremendous
trams! |
Whats better?
 Most
vehicles burn oil-based fuels, like petrol. Some are more economical than
others, planes use up HUGE amounts of fuel, cars use much less - BUT buses are more economical than cars because they pack lots of people in.
OR
Trams usually run on electricity and also pack in lots of
people, so, if their electricity supplier makes its electricity from
renewable energy sources, they are pretty high on the sustainability scale.
OR, we could walk- get fit, get some fresh air and its free!
OR
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And then we would all get our daily exercise without really
trying and without taking up much time in the day. (and no extra gym membership costs!)
And we now have super cool electric bikes - available at the ATC, to help with the troublesome hills around here.
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Run your diesel car on vegetable oil! Its perfectly legal,
as long as you pay the 25.82p per litre to HM Customs and Excise, to
make it a road fuel - it can even be used vegetable oil, the car won't
mind.
There is also a vegetable oil based fuel called bio diesel available - both fuels need a tiny adjustment
to your car for them to work properly. A project for science,
particularly if you are a secondary school - making bio diesel. |
Check with a qualified mechanic first - your engine may need a
slight adjustment. Other alternative and generally pretty funky fuels are...
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LPG |
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(liquefied petroleum gas) this is still a
fossil fuel, but is less polluting than the others. |
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Electricity |
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as long as your supplier is using renewable
energy. Electric cars are still quite scarce but are becoming more
available. |
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Hydrogen |
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used in fuel cells to make energy. This
technology has been hailed as the future "dominant source of power for
personal transportation" It is as yet unavailable to the likes of you
and me - but it's on it's way!! |
There are loads of things that you could do in your school to
work out who is coming from where and who could share cars and your school could set up walking busses, or
cycling trains....theres a brilliant one in Brighton that takes students to the university and back with safety in numbers - with chance to meet new people and they even have a radio playing along the way, so why couldn't you do it with your school?
But Transport isn't just about getting us from A to B, its carrying all our goods around the country and the globe too:
There is another staggeringly significant thing that
can be done to help reduce the amount of transport pollution. Wherever
possible, buy produce (food, clothes, toys - anything really!) that has been produced locally. The closer the better!
If you buy clothes made in this country, then no one has flown
those clothes to you in an aeroplane.
If you are buying apples, then look at where they all came
from. If you have a choice of apples from the Cape, South America,
France or England - then choose the apples that grew the closest to you.
Wool from New Zealand - Wool from
Yorkshire?
Spinach from Israel - Spinach from Lancashire?
Oranges from California - Oranges from Spain?
Wine from Australia - Wine from Italy? |
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It's not that the products from these countries are not good quality
products. It's just that buying the same product from a closer place
will cut out massive amounts of pollution. Which is better for the
environment. And for you! Oh - its good for our farmers too, it must be
very dismaying for them when they cannot sell their apples because there
are so many apples from other countries for sale.
If you want more information about: |
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Then come on further into our web site...
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