The Climate Change Connection (10 minutes -
Review)
Start your lesson with a discussion about
cars and the basic fuel types they use: gasoline, diesel
and other petroleum based liquids. What’ s so bad
about using and burning gasoline?
We all know that
cars contribute to air pollution with byproducts including
Nitrogen and Sulfur Oxides (NOx, Sox) and particulate
matter (soot). But how does driving a car, taking a bus or
riding the subway relate to climate change and greenhouse
gas emissions? Every time we use a transportation source,
fuel is consumed and greenhouse gases are produced and
emitted into the atmosphere. This contributes to a
phenomena known as climate change.
What is climate change?
Climate Change is the international concern that increasing
concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere
are changing the climate in ways detrimental to our social
and economic well being. (For more ideas on how to
integrate issues regarding climate change into your
classroom visit:
https://www. smithsonianconference.
org/climate/teachers/teaching-climate-change/ )
A
greenhouse gas is created when burning a fossil fuel. The
process releases a compound called carbon dioxide. These
gases accumulate in the atmosphere and trap heat close to
the Earth’ s surface. With more and more gases
released, the amount of heat being trapped also increases.
This can begin to raise temperatures around the globe.
What’ s the big deal with that? One degree of change
in world temperature (Celsius or Fahrenheit)
influences everything from the number of storms we
get each year, to the amount of water in the oceans.
The big concern is that coastlines will be reshaped and
climate patterns shifted. This could
much so that farming practices and even whole cities will
change drastically at the cost of environmental and human
health.
Cars and other transportation devices use a lot of
fossil fuels. Gasoline and diesel are used in vast
quantities around the world. Each time we use this resource
greenhouse gases are released, contributing to the climate
change problem.
Gasoline and diesel fuels are pumped from
the earth with large oil rigs such as the ones depicted
above.
Carbon Footprinting (10 minutes -
Investigate)
Now focus on how conventional
transportation use may impact your local community. Talk to
students about their connection to this problem. How many
cars does your family own? How often are they used? Have
students conduct surveys about car usage, recent plane
trips and other traveling that may create a footprint.
Explain to students how we measure the impact of our use of
these fuels: an ecological footprint. This creates an
inventory of the impacts that a behavior or action
may have on the environment. In this case we are focusing
on the carbon footprint, a more specific kind of
ecological footprint focused on one kind of emission.
From
the Livable Streets Project (
https://streetseducation. org/ ) here are some sample
carbon footprints of average transportation options if you
lived 5 miles from your school. (A total commute of 10
miles per day)
• Rode in an SUV, your
10-mile commute would create 16 pounds of carbon dioxide.
• Rode in an average car, you would create 12
pounds of carbon dioxide. To offset all that carbon,
you’ d need to plant 16 trees per year.
•
Rode in a hybrid car, your commute would create 4
pounds of carbon dioxide. To offset all that carbon,
you’ d need to plant 6 trees per year.
•
Took the bus, you would put 5 pounds of carbon dioxide into
the atmosphere.
• Rode the subway, you would
put 2. 5 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
• Walked, biked, or skated, your commute would
create no carbon dioxide.
Math Connection
There
are a number of ways to measure the impact of vehicle use
on the environment. One method is to determine the
ecological footprint of carbon dioxide emissions released
when a car burns its fuel. Below is a common formula used
that can give an approximation of the amount of lbs of C02
produced based on the fuel efficiency and number of miles
an average American drives in a year. (Source: Sierra
Club)
Footprint = (12, 000 Miles / Fuel Efficiency) x
(19. 564 lbs-C02) = ______ lbs-C02/gallon
12, 000
Miles = Average number of miles an American drives in a
year
Solutions (5 minutes - Frame/Reframe)
So what can we do about this? We can make informed
decisions about which kind of traveling impacts our
environment the most and come up with ways to decrease or
minimize the amount and kind of travel we choose. Some
examples include:
• Car share
programs
• Ride bikes
•
Commuter lanes
• Public
transportation etc
Brainstorm with your class about
ways to reduce the climate change impacts of cars and other
vehicles on the environment.
To provide examples of how
designers are tackling the climate crisis reference some
entries from the
2010 National Design Triennial that are
helping communities re-think the kinds of fuels, materials
and infrastructure we use to get around:
•
AGV (Automotrice à Grande Vitesse) [High-speed
Self-propelled Train]: Trains are among the most
sustainable forms of transportation, and currently there is
great international interest in replacing air and
automobile regional travel with fast trains. The AGV,
designed in France by Alstom Transport’ s Design and
Styling Studio, is at the forefront of high-speed,
energy-efficient trains built from nearly ninety-eight
percent of recyclable materials, such as aluminum, steel,
copper, and glass. Its low weight and efficient traction
systems make for a 15% reduction in energy use compared to
current trains. It also produces its own electricity from a
regenerative braking system: while the train is slowing
down, up to eight megawatts of unused electricity is
returned to the train’ s power network.
•
E/S Orcelle Cargo Carrier : Shipping and
air travel have been challenging to regulate in terms of
new environmental standards. A dramatic step forward is the
E/S Orcelle (E/S stands for environmentally sound; orcelle
is French for an endangered type of dolphin), a sustainable
vessel proposed by the Swedish/Norwegian transportation
company Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics. The concept is
based on zero emissions and the premise that by 2025 ships
will be propelled without oil. The E/S Orcelle would have
an optimum cargo capacity of up to 50% more space than
today’ s modern car carriers and could transport ten
thousand cars. This increase is achieved by the
vessel’ s five-hull shape along with its use of
lightweight materials and energy from renewable sources.
•
IDEA Plug-in Hybrid Electric Fleet
Vehicle : Reducing wind resistance and vehicle weight
are the two keys to improving battery performance and
reducing costs in electric vehicles. A recent start-up,
Bright Automotive, took these objectives to task with the
IDEA, a plug-in hybrid electric van designed for light-duty
commercial and government fleets. Bright Automotive expects
each vehicle to reduce fuel consumption by 1, 500 gallons
per year and carbon-dioxide emissions by up to sixteen tons
per year over competing vehicles.
Carbon Footprint
Challenge (15-20 minutes - Generate)
From
selected scenarios students calculate some example carbon
footprints. Use the table below to plug into the following
equation to calculate the carbon footprint for each
scenario:
(miles traveled) / (Fuel efficiency mpg) x
(carbon footprint constant) = _____ tons of CO2
|
Vehicle Type | Constant |
| van, 12 mpg | ton
mile 0. 19 |
| truck 10 mpg | ton mile 0.
16 |
| truck 14 mpg | ton mile 0. 12 |
|
truck 12 mpg | ton mile 0. 11 |
| automobile, 20 mpg | ton
mile 0. 24 |
| automobile, 50 mpg | ton mile 0. 094 |
|
tram NA | mile 0. 92 |
| tanker ship | ton mile 0.
61 |
| freighter inland | ton mile 0. 09 |
| oceanic
freight ship | ton mile 0. 015 |
| container ship | ton mile
0. 17 |
| train, freight 85 mpg | ton mile 0.
02 |
| train, regional 80 mpg | person
mile 0. 024 |
| train, long-distance 90 mpg |
person mile 0. 013 |
| helicopter 8 mpg | minute 1.
6 |
| air, passenger, regional 6 mpg |
person mile 0. 78 |
| air, passenger, intercont. 9
mpg | person mile 0. 41 |
| air, freight, regional
2 mpg | ton mile 2. 8 |
| air, freight, intercont.
2. 5 mpg | ton mile 1. 6 |
Source: CO2
Equivalency values Philip White, May 2007
•
Scenario 1: You take a trip to Alaska from Boston.
To get there you fly first to Seattle 2100 miles and then
take a oceanic freight ship 2300 miles to Alaska’ s
Southern coast. What’ s the carbon footprint?
• Scenario 2: You ride 25 miles each day from
school to home in a 20 mpg car. What’ s your carbon
footprint if you make a roundtrip each day for a week (5
days in your school week)
• Scenario 3:
You take a regional train from Portland to Los Angeles, 980
miles. What’ s the carbon footprint?
•
Scenario 4: You ride a 16 ton truck from New Orleans
to Chicago, 1250 miles. What’ s the carbon
footprint?
As a further design challenge -
encourage students to come up with alternative ways of
getting from each location that minimizes the carbon
footprint for each trip.
Local and Personal Footprints (10
minutes - Edit and Develop)
After completing some
sample scenarios, pull out some local maps. Have each
student calculate the approximate distance they travel from
home to school. Using this information, students should
calculate their own carbon footprints of this trip. How
much carbon is released each week, each month and each
year. What about the carbon footprint of the class
altogether?
Create a chart on the board with
everyone’ s impact and calculate the grand total.
Share responses - who is a carbon hog? (Share and
Evaluate) Brainstorm about what can we do to minimize our
impacts. (Finalize)