Machynlleth (Wales) to Brisbane (Australia) - is overland best? 22 August 06

I don’t know about shipping emissions. There is an excellent new report called ‘Clearing the Air: The Myth and Reality of Aviation and Climate Change’ by the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E). That report says that there has only ever been one study which compares emissions per passenger per mile by different modes of transport and which meets all of the authors’ criteria (such as looking at average occupancy rates, additional climate change impacts of aviation over and above those of the CO2 emitted, etc). That study is called ‘To shift or not to shift’ by CE Delft, 2003 (I haven’t seen it).

The T&E report can be read here: http://www.transportenvironment.org/docs/Publications/2006/2006-06_aviation_clearing_the_air_myths_reality.pdf,and, in Annex 3, it summarises some of the 2003 report, but not all. The summary does not mention shipping – don’t know if the report itself does. I suspect the T&E would be the best people to contact for further figures.

The report says that the impact of the most polluting form of public transport, high-speed rail, is still 2-10 times less than that of flying.

And plenty of people have over the decades, at those, like Barbara, who have done something different with their lives and gone to work/live/volunteer at CAT. CAT (if you haven’t been, it’s worth the trip even just for the scenery and the fantastic food in the cafe) has been around for so long now, they’re almost a part of the establishment: (the guys even wear suits to meetings!!!)

CAT is also a successful education and visitor centre, a sustainable business and a tourist attraction in its own right. They are a repository of an immense amount of experience and knowledge on sustainability and a good reality-check when the system says ‘can’t be done’. They have done it for years and been successful. It is also a great starting point for young people with imagination and enthusiam who want to try to make a change. So good luck Barbara and well done for livening up a topical and timely debate.

best to all

Colin

The report mentioned in the post above can be found here: http://www.ce.nl/eng/redirect/publ_cem_index.html Select publications – reports – and scroll down to 2003