Transportation in a Climate-Constrained World

In the nineteenth century, horse transportation consumed vast amounts of land for hayproduction, and the intense traffic and ankle-deep manure created miserable living conditions inurban centers. The introduction of the horseless carriage solved many of these problems but hascreated others. Today another revolution in transportation seems overdue. Transportation consumestwo-thirds of the world's petroleum and has become the largest contributor to global environmentalchange. Most of this increase in scale can be attributed to the strong desire for personal mobilitythat comes with economic growth. In Transportation in a Climate-Constrained World, the authorspresent the first integrated assessment of the factors affecting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions frompassenger transportation. They examine such topics as past and future travel demand; the influenceof personal and business choices on passenger travel's climate impact; technologies and alternativefuels that may become available to mitigate GHG emissions from passenger transport; and policiesthat would promote a more sustainable transportation system. And most important, taking into accountall of these options are taken together, they consider how to achieve a sustainable transportationsystem in the next thirty to fifty years.