Transportation

Modes of transportation represent some of the most im-

portant technological advances in human history. Ini-

tially, transportation was limited to travel by foot or boat.

Later, animals were domèsticated and trained to carry

heavy loads. Within the last few millennia, humans

learned how to capture wind power with sails, which

as

lowed ships to travel long distances and eventually en

abled humans to circle the globe. The invention of the

steam engine created power for ocean vessels and rail-

road engines, whereas the internal combustion engine

revolutionized travel and made possible the develop

ment of the automobile and the airplane All of these in-

novations have required increased resource use, not

only to make the vehicles that move people and goods,

but also to build and maintain the related infrastruc

ture-roads, railroad tracks, airports, parking structures,

repair facilities, and the like. With each innovation the

impacts seem to widen. As David Headrick points out in

a study discussed in the Campanion Engclopedia of

Geograpby Douglas and Robinson, 1996), Chicago's

O'Hare Airport covers a larger area Capproximately

28

square kilometers than Chicago's central business dis

trict (which covers approximately 8 square kilometers)

Moreover, transportation innovations offer access to re-

mote areas of the planet. There are vehicles that allow

people to travel through extreme climates, to the bot-

toms of the ocean, and across the polar ice caps. These

places, in turn, have been altered by human activity.

Transportation is also implicated in global

environ-

mental albeit sometimes indirectly. Advances

in transportation have produced significant pollution, as

seen, for example, in the extent of oil spills along major

shipping lanes CFig. 351 Modern modes of transport

have also facilitated the introduction of new species to

areas where they were not found previously, Over the

last few centuries, as ships became more seaworthy and

global voyages more frequent, the number of species

spread from one part of the globe to another increased.

Some organisms attached themselves to the bottom of

whereas others stowed on board or were

transported intentionally as a food source. In modern

cargo ships, the taking on of seawater as ballast facili-

tates the transport of pelagic species Gthat is, species

that live in the open sea) from one side of the globe to

the other one study estimates that between 1850 and

1970 San Francisco Bay received a new species every 36

weeks, and over the last decade this rate has increased to

1 species every 12 weeks. Diseases are also spread by

transportation rapid air travel has made it common for

contagious disease outbreaks in one part of the world to

spread quickly toother regions.

Finally, transportation facilitates the types of global

networks that are necessary to the patterns of consump-

tion outlined earlier. Many of the products available in

stores be they electronics or clothing or f

fromdistant places Resourcesare required toproduceand

ship them, and except those that meet basic subsistence

needs, they all contribute to the greater strains placed on

the environment by those living in the wealthier parts of

the world. This realization has led some individuals to re-

duce their levels of consumption or to consume more en-

vironmentally friendly, locally produçed products. These

changes have had some effect, but so far their impact on

the geography of global consumption has been marginal