[12.07.2022]
The scientific and technological revolution, population growth, urbanization, and the continuous pursuit of comfort have made transport an indispensable attribute of people’s lives. However, with the development of transport, there were costs not only for humans but also for the environment.
Harmful emissions from transport running on fossil fuels exacerbate the problem of global warming: they lead to an increase in the greenhouse effect, air and water pollution, noise pollution, and soil erosion.
Traditional transport is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions – about 16%. Most of them fall on cars – 11.9%, aircraft and ships generate 1.9% and 1.7% each, trains – 0.4%.
In large cities, the cars are responsible for 90% of all emissions. They exacerbate global warming, that said, noise, vibration and electromagnetic effects adversely affect human health.
The by-product of fuel combustion in a car engine is CO2. It is one of the main greenhouse gases influencing climate change. Over time, the engine wears out and fuel cannot burn in full. This leads to the release of toxic substances: a dangerous “cocktail” of carbon and nitrogen oxides, compounds that cause respiratory diseases.
Trains, due to burning coal or fuel oil, are also sources of greenhouse gas emissions and toxic substances: carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter.
Ships pollute the oceans – in the event of oil and chemical spills, waste during cargo transhipment, or ship dismantling. Ships also carry alien species of flora and fauna around the world, threatening local biodiversity.
1% of people caused half of the global aviation’s carbon emissions in 2018, according to a study. The researchers estimated the cost of the climate damage caused by aviation’s emissions at USD 100 billion in 2018.
The environmental potential of uSky Transport & Infrastructure Technology is significantly higher than any of the existing transport systems. uSky transport complexes in terms of their environmental friendliness, comfort, efficiency, and safety are several times superior to all known modes of transport due to the following advantages:
zero-emission of greenhouse gas and toxic substances;
low resource intensity and energy consumption at all stages of the life cycle of the uSky complex;
uSky overpass does not violate the terrain, biogeocenosis, and biodiversity of the adjacent natural areas;
uSky track does not destroy fertile soil and vegetation;
uSky track does not impede the movement of ground and surface water, the movement of people, domestic and wild animals;
off-the-ground concept allows one to forget about traffic jams and accidents, and the anti-derailment system unprecedentedly increases safety.
The transition to the sustainable uSky transport system will save 31.2 billion tons of fuel annually on 25 million km of high-speed roads. To burn this amount of fuel, 106 billion tons of oxygen sufficient for the breathing of 67 billion people will not be additionally removed from the atmosphere. In addition, the rejection of the annual combustion of 31.2 billion tons of fuel will exclude additional emissions of toxic and carcinogenic substances into the environment: carbon monoxide – 650 million tons, nitrogen oxide – 550 million tons, sulfur dioxide – 238 million tons, aldehydes – 30 million tons, soot – 155 million tons.
It will not be necessary to produce additional hundreds of billions of tons of metal and cubic meters of concrete required for the construction of 25 million km of high-speed roads, as well as to annually produce additional tens of billions of tons of oil and other types of energy resources necessary for the operation of roads. There will also be no need for billions of kilowatts of excess rolling stock drive power, which will not pollute the environment not only with fuel combustion products but also with the strongest noise during their operation.
Ecologically clean uSky complexes feature point loads on the ground. This advantage can return to land users the vast territories that today are occupied by traditional transport links. Vegetation will reappear in the occupied areas, annually replenishing the atmosphere with a billion tons of oxygen and utilizing about the same amount of CO2. It will be possible to produce about 1 billion tons of additional agricultural products on the same land annually.
In developing the transport industry, it is necessary to strike a balance between the economic interests of society, on the one hand, and the extent of environmental impact, on the other. The mission of uSky Transport & Infrastructure Technology is to reduce harmful emissions, reduce energy consumption, increase the energy efficiency of transport complexes created both for the benefit of people and the environment.