Transportation in a Climate-Constrained World

In the nineteenth century, horse transportation consumed vast amounts of land for hay production, and the intense traffic and ankle-deep manure created miserable living conditions in urban centers. The introduction of the horseless carriage solved many of these problems but has created others. Today another revolution in transportation seems overdue. Transportation consumes two-thirds of the world's petroleum and has become the largest contributor to global environmental change. Most of this increase in scale can be attributed to the strong desire for personal mobility that comes with economic growth. In "Transportation in a Climate-Constrained World", the authors present the first integrated assessment of the factors affecting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from passenger transportation. They examine such topics as past and future travel demand; the influence of personal and business choices on passenger travel's climate impact; technologies and alternative fuels that may become available to mitigate GHG emissions from passenger transport; and policies that would promote a more sustainable transportation system. And most important, taking into account all of these options, they consider how to achieve a sustainable transportation system in the next thirty to fifty years.

About the Author :
Andreas Schafer is Director of the Martin Center for Architectural and Urban Studies at the University of Cambridge and a Research Affiliate at MIT. John B. Heywood is Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory at MIT. Henry D. Jacoby is Codirector of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change and Professor of Management in the Sloan School of Management at MIT. Ian A. Waitz is Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor and Department Head, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, at MIT.

Review :
"Andreas Schafer and his colleagues provide a clear and concise overview of the role that transportation plays in creating some of the global environmental challenges confronting us and look at the sort of technology that can help us circumvent the dangers of global climatic change. In doing this it brings within a single set of covers a wealth of information, systematically presented, and, importantly, written in a way that can be followed by a non-specialist. It is a very welcome addition to the literature."--Kenneth J. Button, Director, Aerospace Policy and Management Center, School of Public Policy, George Mason University "The authors deliver a wealth of data, analysis, and insight on the key challenges to achieve sustainable transportation systems--oil dependency, global climate change, the growing global demand for mobility--and the technological and policy solutions that will be required to overcome these challenges. This book provides a unique reference for policymakers, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders that will shape the coming transformation of our global transportation systems."--John Moavenzadeh, Senior Director, Head of Sustainable Mobility and Strategy Officer, World Economic Forum "This book is full of fascinating insights. It is a brilliant dissection of our transportation energy problems and a careful and sophisticated examination of the solutions. As one would expect from such renowned experts, this book is a must read for anyone interested in transportation energy. I've been waiting for this book for years and will immediately adopt it as a text for my course."--Daniel Sperling, Member, California Air Resources Board and Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, Acting Director, Energy Efficiency Center, Professor of Transportation Engineering and Environmental Policy, University of California, Davis "This book--not surprisingly, given the authors--provides an excellent technical review of the costs and benefits of alternative efficiency technologies and alternative fuels for light vehicles and commercial aircraft. More surprisingly, it contains an unusually insightful discussion of the evolution of travel and a valuable and dispassionate review of the policy options open to government to pursue further technological advancement of the two fleets. I've been doing this work for twenty years and this book showed me that I still have a lot to learn."--Stephen E. Plotkin, Center for Transportation Research, Argonne National Laboratory