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The Real (Sustainable) Superhighway?
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What’s Sustainability? Sustainability Environmental Economic Social Enviro- Economic Socio- Economic Sustainability Socio- Environmental
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Continuation of recent trends (middle of band) leads by 2100 to temperatures not reached since the Eocene (25-35 million years ago), when sea level was 20-30 m higher. A2 B1 Source: Professor John Holdren, Harvard University Why is environmental sustainability important?
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Finding the right balance Costs Enviro- socio
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Source: DfT
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Sustainability is complex!
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Health Warning! My (not so) secret weapon is ignorance Accuracy has been sacrificed on the altar of simplicity
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How do we measure sustainability? Exergy is the part of energy that is useful to society It is calculated from a knowledge of the chemical composition of compounds Can be used to measure both resource consumption and the environmental impacts of emissions Can add together the effects of different pollutants
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Transport accounts for almost 40% of all UK exergy consumption
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The consumption of exergy by air transport has increased by over 250% since 1970
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Statistics are like a swimsuit: what they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital
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Road transport accounts for more than 70% of all transport exergy consumption
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PJ/Gt kmRelative to Rail Road8.075.0 Rail1.601.0 Air671.00420.0 Water1.300.8 Road transport is more than five times less efficient than rail transport
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Transport accounts for more than 25% of all UK environmental impacts
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Emissions from air transport have increased by more than 300% since 1970
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Road transport accounts for more than 70% of all transport emissions
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PJ/Gt kmRelative to Rail Road0.307.50 Rail0.041.00 Air1.9047.50 Water0.041.00 Road transport has 7½ times greater impact on the environment than rail
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Connectivity the economic and social key? What if we could travel by rail between – Edinburgh and Glasgow in 10 minutes – Dundee and Glasgow or Edinburgh in 20 minutes – Aberdeen and Edinburgh or Glasgow in 35 minutes – Edinburgh or Glasgow and London in 1½ hours?
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Connectivity the economic key? – Edinburgh and Glasgow would be a single city – Dundee would be a suburb of Gladinburgh or Edingow – The travel to work region of Aberdeen would encompass 4m people – Commuters could live in Gladinburgh and work in London
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Connectivity the economic key? – The City of Scotland would be the second largest in the UK and the fourth largest in Europe – It would have a tourist industry twice the size of London – It would have the second largest life sciences cluster in the UK – There would be a need for only one international airport – The UK centre of financial services might move to the City of Scotland
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Biting the Chinese Bullet
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Connectivity the economic and environmental key? What if we could – step off a bus at every railway station in the City of Scotland – step off a train at the City of Scotland’s international airport – transfer freight directly from ships to trains?
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Connectivity the economic and environmental key? We would – reduce the amount of road traffic – increase our exports – reduce journey times – increase the number of tourists – reduce the amount of carbon emissions
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Transport, the environmental key? What if we: –made everyone pay the full cost of travel, including the cost of damage to the environment –made all public transport free –made it illegal to carry freight long-distance by road?
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Transport the environmental key? We would: –reduce carbon emissions at a stroke –need no new roads (or bridges!) –save enormous sums on road maintenance –reduce the need for petrol stations –make more friends?
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If we always do what we always did, we’ll always get what we always got
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The best way to create the future is to invent it r.m.w.horner@dundee.ac.uk www.sue-mot.org www.wlcuk.com
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With thanks to: And especially to the Dundee team: Alex Gasparatos Doug Forbes Mohamed El-Haram
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