Greening Transportation Role In Tackling Global Warming
What is global warming? It is a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, CFCs, and other pollutants. These gases are emitted into atmosphere mainly by human activities. Global warming has been a major concern nowadays, because the average global temperature is climbing significantly. The production of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is having a heating effect on the atmosphere, and this could be very dangerous for human life. Many problems could also result from global warming. For example, the rising sea level and the rapid changes in weather patterns. Hence, people should take action and work on resolving the global warming issue. There are several solutions to tackle global warming. I would choose greening transportation as the solution due to the increasing rate of transportation sector’s emission. Greening transportation is one of the latest developments on tackling global warming. It would focus simply on decreasing negative environmental impact such as greenhouse gas emissions. The negative effects of our transportation system is large, thus, the ‘greening’ of the transportation system is vital. Most of the households own at least one car in Malaysia itself. According to (Hans, 2014), Malaysia is ranked third out of 195 countries in this world for the rate of car ownership. This is mainly due to the unreliable public transport. Developed countries like Japan, England and United States with a well-established public transportation system have lower rate of car ownership. The residents in these countries prefer to travel by public transport because it is convenient and reliable. If public transports are used more frequently, this can serve as a way to reduce the number of vehicles on the road and subsequently reduce the gas emissions. To encourage the use of public transport, the government can play a role by improving the public transportation system such as intercity buses and train. This is what greening transportation about, discouraging the use of private motor vehicle.
The availability of rail and bus transit is a key requirement to stop people travelling around with personal cars. Distance to transit addresses how far someone must walk to get to a bus stop, light rail or train station. When public transit is out of service or uncomfortable, some companies are taking it upon themselves to satisfy the need. For example, information technology giant Google maintains a fleet of alternative-fuel buses that it uses to shuttle employees from many locations throughout the San Francisco Bay area to its office park, the company encourages ridership by offering such amenities as comfortable seats and wireless access. As I said, greening transportation is about reducing the use of personal vehicle. Apart from making use of the public transport, people can consider using the bicycle instead. There are trends in some of the European countries particularly Denmark, Holland and Sweden, where people would cycle to their office and school. (BuildingGreen, 2011) I personally think that cycling is a very good way of executing the greening transportation idea. Though, some may moan about the distance they have to cycle to get to their destination, but if you look into it, it is certainly a win-win situation. Not only you help in reducing gas emissions, your body also get to work out as well, so why not? To encourage people to start cycling instead of using personal vehicle, the streets and communities have to be bicycle friendly. To achieve that, bicycling lanes and bicycle paths and trails should be done in the urban areas. It is about time for us Malaysian to follow the footsteps of the European by making cycle as a commuting option. (BuildingGreen, 2011) Furthermore, greening transportation can be carried out by carpooling. Carpooling is a very effective way to reduce pollution, save money, and go green. The challenge is finding someone who you commute with and know you are safe. If you can find someone to commute with, you not only reduce your commuting cost by 50%, but you also prevent more carbon dioxide from causing climate change. (BuildingGreen, 2011). To add on, carpooling is a very favorable mode of green transportation. For instance, if you have a colleague that goes to the same working place with you, the both of you can take turns to carpool to a desired location such as the office. By doing so, the emission of carbon dioxide will reduce drastically. Long story short, rather than 5 people driving their individual vehicles in the same direction, it is a more eco-friendly option to have one car carrying all five to a desired location. We both know that when that happens, the chances of curbing global warming will be greater. (Conserve Energy Future) In addition, greening transportation is not only focused mainly on the different modes of transport that can be used such as bicycle or by carpooling. Switching to low-carbon fuel and at the same time, using different alternative fuels can also help drastically in curbing global warming. There are a variety of alternative of fuels that can be used such as ethanol. Ethanol also makes an effective motor fuel. Ethanol has a lower energy content than gasoline. This simply means that about one-third more ethanol is required to travel the same distance as on gasoline. For instance, in the news reported by Maria Galluci, California is replacing oil with cleaner-burning fuels in cars and trucks. The report which is carried out by a group of researchers at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, said California drivers saved more than a staggering two billion gallons of gasoline in the two years since the launch of the rule. (Gallucci, 2013). This major breakthrough offers a way to reduce greenhouse gas emission from transportation and this in turn, will combat global warming. (Consumer Energy Center, 2012) Moreover, building more efficient mass transportation systems can also help in combatting global warming. (Climate Hot Map). As we put our thinking caps on for this ‘save the environment’ thing, one of the best ways around leaving a giant carbon footprint, is to establish an effective mass transportation system. Public transport systems offer many advantages over the personal alternatives when it comes to getting large numbers of people from A to be in style and safety. For instance, superconducting vacuum trains. This effective discovery facilitates zero emission of gasoline which will in turn reduce the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. To add on, reversing roles comes into play. Taking the above ground rail concept further, this high speed train passes through at speeds of p to 240km/h at about 150 miles per hour. This will indirectly reduce the time to commute from one place to another which will in turn save tons of gasoline. Lastly, high-speed alternative energy is also one of the primary breakthrough into curbing global warming. For instance, the SolarBullet project is a campaign whose aim is to bring high-speed trains to Arizona using tracks equipped with solar panel carrying canopies that would provide electricity that the system needs to run. While on the subject, solar energy isn’t only the alternative energy that can be used for empowering this networks as wind energy which is a renewable energy can also be practiced to empower this high speed network of trains. (Noel, 2012) All in all, I strongly believe with no doubt that if we were to practice green transportation, the arduous path of combatting global warming will come to a complete halt. Therefore, as a responsible human being, we all should be united as one as the children of God to cooperate with one another in order to make this world a more beautiful place to live. If we make small changes now in the way we live, we can avoid huge changes in the future, and when that happens, we will not only witness a beautiful and an environmentally-friendly world, but at the same time our fore coming generations will be experiencing it as well. The only possible way for this to happen is for us humans to come to our senses and start acting now before it is too late. In a nutshell, for a better tomorrow, for the people we love, and our beautiful nation, let us all work together to achieve green transportation!

Reference List
BuildingGreen. (2011, September). http://www2.buildinggreen.com/article/driving-green-buildings-transportation-energy-intensity-buildings.
Climate Hot Map. (n.d.). http://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-solutions/. Retrieved from Solutions To Global Warming.
Conserve Energy Future. (n.d.). http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/modes-and-benefits-of-green-transportation.php.
Consumer Energy Center. (2012).
Gallucci, M. (2013). Low-Carbon Fuel Rule is Working.
Hans. (2014, April 16). Car's ownership in Malaysia third highest in the world.
Noel, M. (2012). Radical railways : Top 10 transportation systems of the future.