Research Paper

Are you still wallowing in the convenience and efficiency provided by the transportation? Wake up, people! Transportation is killing us, and it is destroying the world. We cannot deny that the transportation plays an important role in our life; it increases our mobility, which benefits us from our daily activity to the international trading. However, we receive those benefits at the expense of our health and our environment.
Our environment is getting worse, as the use of transportation is increasing. The term “noise pollution” is new for many of us, however, living in a city with well developed transportation system, our health is threatening by all types of traffic noise. The connection between transportation and air pollution has been widely known by the people. But there is very few people have noticed that the air pollution can increase the chance of getting lung cancer. And it can cause acid rain, which will lead to further pollution on land and water. In addition to the health issues and environmental problems, transportation is also responsible for the energy crisis. The oil price rise so fast, many people have wondered why. As we all should knew, we have limited energy sources on the earth, the price will increasing as the amount of oil is decreasing. Once we are run out of oil, we will start consuming other energy sources. We will never stop until there is nothing left. It is unrealistic for us not to use transportation, the best we can do is to limit the usage of transportation.
Transportation is definitely not increases our life quality, if our health is in danger. Many researchers have proved that the transportation is threatening our health, by cause all kinds of pollution. “The noise produced by traffic is one of the most important contributors to the appreciation to the quality of life” (Botteldooren). According to Robyn Gershon, a Columbia professor, 98 percent of the Manhattan’s public place, noise level has reach a point, which it is actually damaging our health. The noise on the street can make you feel stressed, and increase you blood pressure, “even if yourself don’t recognize that spike is happening” (Sanderson). Stress and increase in blood pressure might not sound so terrible, but it could become really dangerous for us, especially if we live or constantly work in a place, where there is traffic noise all the time.
A study have show, that “a day-time average noise level of 60 decibels” increases heart disease by 61 percent in men and 80 percent in woman, “a night-time average noise level of 55 decibels” increased the risk of heart attack by 66 percent in men and 139 percent in women (Larm,page,54). Recalled what we learned in high school, 50 decibels is the level of noise generated by a type writer or a loud conversation, and 70 decibels is the level of noise caused by normal traffic. This means, we are belong to the groups of people, who are in the danger of getting heart disease, and at the rise of having heart attack.

According to the World Health Organization, traffic noise is the second biggest problem affecting health, and air pollution is the biggest problem. We can see reports about air pollution all over the news paper and televisions, however, most of we have never paid close attention to those reports. We must recognize the impact of air pollution, because it’s damaging to our health. In the urban area, transportation generated million tons of harmful gas every year (Rodrigue). The two most common harmful gases we can name are Carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). CO can decrease the amount of oxygen in our body, lead to lung cancers. NO2 may slow down the circulation of blood, and cause heart disease. Those two gases are made up more than 60 percent of the toxic gas release by the transportation, which is a lot (Rodrigue). Compared to the people who live in the country, where there is less traffic, the people who live in a city like New York, have a 15 percent greater chance of getting lung cancer, and even more chance of getting other minor respiration problems (Bottaldooran). There is no way for us to be surrounded by transportation, and without of getting sick.

After noticed how the transportation is endangering our health, do you still believe transportation is increasing our life quality? Wait! It is not over yet. Transportation is not only killing us, but also destroying our living environment. Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) released by the transportation is not only the cause of air pollution. Once SO2 and NOx reached the atmosphere, they will also mix with the water molecule in the cloud and cause acid rain (Rodrigue). As we all have learned in high school living environment class, the water we have today, is actually the same water from thousand years ago, it is part of the infinite loop in the water cycle. Once acid rain enters the water cycle, it will stay there forever; the balance of the whole ecology system will be disrupted. As result we have see in today, the water sources have been polluted, forests have been damaged, land has become infertile, crops can no longer grow naturally in many areas, wild animals are dying (EPA.gov). Simply, our world has been changed, because of the increasing use of transportation.

Transportation is not only destroying our world by cause all kinds of pollutions, but also by wasting our natural resources. As the transportation became universal, we need to build more roads, stations, and ports. However, we have limited space on the earth, in order to have enough space for the transportation, we have to cut down the forests. At least 80,000 acres (32,300 ha) of forest disappear from Earth each year (Mongabay.com). Even though, we are planting trees, while we are cutting them down, the amount of trees we plant can never catch up with the number of trees we are cutting down. We are not just destroying the forests, we are also ruining down the mountains and filling up the rivers for the same purpose (Tuzkaya). There will never be enough space for the transportation, if we don’t slow down the development of transportation,

We have very limited space on the earth. We also have very limited amount of energy sources we can use. The main energy source we use to run the transportations are oils. The world used over a trillion liters of oil in 1995, and the number has doubled in recent years (Carl). Oil is very limited on the earth, and one day we will definitely run out of oil. After we run out of oil, we will try to use other energy sources. We will probably end up using nuclear energy, because it's fast to generate and low in fuel cost. However, the explosion at Fukushima nuclear plant has proved the fact, that the nuclear energy is extremely dangerous, we are not capable to use it safely (Black). If we want to replace oil with the nuclear energy, it will only speed up our process of destroying the world.

It seems like the best choice we have, in order to save the world, is to stop use the transportation. However, is it possible? The answer is no. Our economic system is closely related to the transportation. Many businesses in society today are dependent upon fast and flexible deliveries. (Rodrigue). Without the transportation, freight will not be able to transit as fast as now, international trading will become impossible, because we will simply lose the connection to the rest of the world. "In many developing countries, transportation account for 12 percent of their GDP, and 4 percent of the cost of each unit in Manufacturing"(Rodriguez). This means, when the transportations are gone, our economic development will be slow down, and the price for everything in the market will increase, because we need more time and human resource to make the goods flow in the market.

Those guesses are made in a "macroeconomic" prospective, let’s take a close look on what will happen to our daily life. This is a real experiment done by Swedish Association of Road Haulage Companies in 2009, according to the study, on the first day without the transportation, milk and fresh bread runs out, senior care is affected by lack of food delivery. This suggested we will have no fresh food in our refrigerator after the first day. On the second day, pharmacies will be forced to close because of the shortage in the medicines. At this point our health will be threatened, and we will have no medicine if we get sick. After a few days, the city will become a masses, garbage is all over the street. And at the end of the week, "all industrial production stopped" (IRU.org). The result of the experiment is actually worse than we were expected, after the first week without transportation, our existing economic system will collapse, because if factory closes, there will be no more industrial production.

It is unrealistic to stop use transportation, because transportation is closely associated with the proper function of our economic, and our daily life. However, our health is deteriorating by because of transportation, and it is also destroying our environment. We must do something to reduce the damage. Take the suggestion given by Al Gore in his speech, in order to change the situation, every one of us must work together. We can actually can improve our environment and reduce the pollution very easily. We use public transportation instead of driving private cars. This is not an advertisement fund by MTA, taking public transportation might not feel as comfortable as driving private cars, but by doing this, we are investing for our health and our future.


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