Transport Carbon Enquiry – Group 1

What

  • We learned about the different forms of travel to get to Chamonix. These included train, plane, car, coach, ferry.
  • We found out that the most carbon efficient way to get to Chamonix was to take the coach. We are happy we didn’t fly though as this is much more carbon inefficient than any other form of transport. We are also happy we didn’t drive as this is nearly as bad as flying.
  • We learned that Chamonix has a free bus system. This helps reduce the number of cars on the roads around town. We saw that the road that runs up to Chamomix also goes through the Mont Blanc tunnel into Italy. This means that there are a lot of lorries using the valley to transport stuff into Italy.
  • When we went up to the mountain refuge we wondered how they got food up and waste down. They told us that they did it via helicopter!
  • After our hike we used a train and a cable car. These both use electricity as a power source.

So What

  • We don’t think taking the train is the most fuel efficient method to get to Chamonix, however we recognise there is an element of convenience and cost to factor in.
  • We are glad we didn’t drive because it creates so much more CO2.
  • There are still lots of people in Esher that drive when it is not necessary.
  • Taking a helicopter to fly food up and waste down from the refuge seems to be hugely fuel inefficient. Again there is an element of convenience here, however it seems plausible to bring food up in the cable car and walk it down to the refuge. They may need to build a better path.

Now What

  • We would like to encourage the school to find different ways to get to school than driving. This would reduce the amount of congestion outside the school and would massively reduce the amount of CO2 produced by members of the school.
  • Our plan is to provide an incentive for the class that has the most children walking each week.
  • We would also like to set up ‘walking buses’ so that children can all walk to school as bigger groups.
  • This would help reduce CO2 and improve the health of all the children!