A Day is a Long Time in Global Environmental Change

While it was only yesterday I was speculating that perhaps the anthropocene began with the invention of the steam locamotive, a new idea has already come to light.

While browsing the web for climate data, as you do, I came across a series of articles highlighting the environmental impact of the Baltic crusades. Only last year Brown and Pluskowski were able to show through pollen and peat analysis at 2 sites how crusaders transformed the landscape of Northern Poland through the clearence of boradleaved woodland and agricultural intensification between the 13th and 15th centuries.

These ideas stem from a 2009 conference on the 'Ecology of the Crusades'. Other work also based around this conference includes a considerably longer paper by Pluskowski et. al (2011). While at points it seems to lack the place specific detail of the Brown and Pluskowski article mentioned before, it gives a neat overview of the ways in which crusaders impacted on ecology across the whole of medieveal Europe.

While these ideas do require further testing they are beginning to be supported by increased zooarcheological and documentary data, and therefore warrant serious consideration when thinking about the start of the anthropocene.

Watt, Where and When?

So we know what we are looking for. To establish when travel first had an impact on a global scale one has to look for increases in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and land use change.

While there are different theories as to when humans first started having a global environmental impact, most notably from Crutzen and Ruddiman, it is the former who suggests that the invention of the steam engine was a pivotal moment. In numerous articles Crutzen argues that the anthropocene, a human dominated epoch, began in the late 18^th century when Watt invented the steam engine. In a 2003 article with Steffen he shows how different variables and indicators have fluctuated over the last 200 years as a result of human intervention. Through simple  graphs he clearly illustrate the numerous ways in which we have impacted upon the environment, and provides a representation of the ways in which humans have come to dominate nature, an idea which they have so damningly previously written about in the article.

The steam engine, however, does not mean the steam locomotive. That was not invented until 1804. As Crutzen has looked at so many indicators to establish what could constitute the start of the anthropocene what is to say that it can’t be the marked increase in train transportation in the 19^th Century; could that provide the golden spike in our geological records?

While that is tough to prove, it is without question railway mania that started in the 1840s did contribute to the increase of greenhouse gas emissions at the time, and as train travel became more established land use change accelerated rapidly as tracks were built and extended.  Between 1825 and 1837 parliament agreed to the building of 93 new railway lines, and by 1851 6,800 miles of track had already been built.  Green land diminished, residential areas were destroyed, and as the links between cities improved and the economy  strengthened, urban sprawl continued apace. Although it is most likely as Crutzen suggests that humans had already had a marked effect on the environment by the mid 19th Century, it is still interesting to think about the environemtal impacts of this railway expansion, and to what extent it did lead to global environmental change.  

Measure for Measure

This last week I had been planning to base my second entry around when travel first began to impact the environment on a global scale. While reading, however, it became clear I didn’t really know what I was looking for; I didn’t know what the impacts of travel were. If I was going to look for a golden spike in the geological records, an idea that will be touched on next time, what should I be looking out for? Hence the topic of this week’s entry: what are the global impacts of travel and how can we measures them?

Written in 2002, Gossling’s 'Global environmental consequences of tourism', highlights succinctly 4 ways leisure travel, but also the transportation of humans more generally, has shaped our environment, and the ways we can measure the impacts. Along with the dispersal of diseases, monitored through case loads and mapping, the impacts are: 

1.) Land cover and use changes. According to Gossling, this is the single most of global environmental change. Central to economic growth land cover has been reducing, and land uses have been changing for centuries, and while travel can directly impact this (roads, railways, airports...), it can also have indirect impacts by linking places and promoting urban expansion. Currently the best way to monitor change is through satellite photos and the level of CO2, CH4 and NOx in the atmosphere.

2.) Energy use. Currently the transport sector is responsible for 25% of the world’s energy usage, and 22% of all fossil fuel emissions (IPCC, 2001). Quite clearly therefore the energy use of transport will impact hugely on global warming, and it is through the levels of greenhouse gases we will be able to measure changes.

3.) Extinction of wild species. Human mobility has caused a massive exchange of species, which in turn has affected our ecosystem functioning. While it is possible to measure the rates of extinction, the extent to which they have been caused by travel is more difficult to ascertain.

While 4 impacts have been highlighted here, it is important to remember there are more (this list is by no means exhaustive) and along with all these physical impacts, travel can change people perceptions of the environment and their relationship with it. Just something to think about next time when you chose to take the bus instead of walk.

A journey's beginning

First blog ever and what better to explore than the impact our travelling has had on the environment over the last 600 years. Right?

Since the 15th century, whether it is through exploring, trading, commuting, holidaying or almost any activity when you think about it, humans have been moving around the world. And this is certainly not confined to just one or two people; in 2011 alone 2.8 billion people travelled by aircraft across 35,000 routes (IATA, 2012).

With this kind of traffic it is unarguable that there will, and already are, global implications. Although I could focus on the financial repercussions, they seem trivial in comparison to the impact travel is having on our ecosystems and environment, the systems that we live in that support our existence.   

Through this blog I will explore the impact travel has had (and is having) on the environment at both a global and local scale. While this will predominantly involve me reviewing articles and giving my opinion, I will be reliving exhibits, discussing cutting edge travel affairs, and then just passing on anything I find 'blog-worthy'. 

For the speech I got my air travel stats from, check out this link on the State of the Air Transport Industry.

While a little, long some of the numbers are truly staggering, and although there is a distinct focus on the financial fragility of the industry, some of the promises relating to sustainability are interesting. None more so than their aim to achieve carbon-neutral growth from 2020. Call me sceptical but...