Transforming Transportation - Biocene 2022
Concept Art by Christopher Collens
Abstract
As we delve deeper into the ramifications of climate change, the importance of solving global carbon emissions is paramount in the environmentalist movement. Transportation alone is responsible for 27% of greenhouse gas emissions. Any reduction to this sector of carbon production will be a massive step towards tackling climate change.
Stardust at Biocence 2022
This year, Stardust attended Biocene 2022 as a member of N.A.S.A V.I.N.E.(Virtual Interchange for Nature- Inspired Exploration) Education Team. NASA V.I.N.E focuses on nature-inspired exploration on Earth and in space for the benefit of all of life. Biocene is a conference where ideas and research on innovation inspired by nature (biomimicry) are shared, connections are made, and opportunities for collaborations are fostered. It creates conditions for biomimicry through leadership to ignite further advancement of the field to help find solutions for a better world. This year, Biocene set its eyes on one of the leading issues in climate change in its theme: Transformation of Transportation. Through presentations with global leaders in business, science, and speculative fiction, rethinking how our transportation can address climate, regeneration, access and equity were at the forefront of the conversation.
Photo of N.A.S.A V.I.N.E Education Cluster Meeting
The necessity of creating spaces where global leaders from different spheres of influence can come together and battle these issues with new eyes was framed best by Billy Almon in the opening talk, Exploration of Waymaking: Creating Pathways for Life Through Nature-Inspired Movement. In it, he said, “...challenging assumptions about the future to discover unexpected solutions are incredibly important to battling our climate issues.”
Photo of Mariah app by Heather Quinn
Imagining Sustainable Futures
The concept of challenging assumptions for every groundbreaking product and field of research presented at Biocene started with one thing: Imagination. Heather Quinn explored this in her talk, Using Design Fiction to Imagine Sustainable Futures. In her eyes, the importance of imagining more sustainable futures is pivotal to creating change. Design fiction is a tool that can be used to reframe our past, present and future. Science & Design Fiction eventually become our futures. Through Quinn’s own work, and through much of her talk, she expresses the need to imagine and share these futures, as it creates dialogue and makes these realities possible. One such dialogue she explores is the historical injustice of cultural institutions and its funding through Mariah -a site-specific augmented reality experience. Through the Mariah app, Quinn reframes ideas of spaces we inhabit and revere and gives us the opportunity to face injustice head-on. As an act of protest, this creates dialogue that allows us to changes towards a sustainable future but confronting the atrocities of the past and present.
Transforming Spaces
Photo by Charly Triballeau
Transforming our current transportation systems to battle climate change also means making meaningful changes to our current infrastructure. Creating practical and feasible changes that display real results can allow us to develop systems that move towards carbon neutrality, and sustainability. This idea was brilliantly exemplified in Unwanna Etuk’s talk, Transforming Highways into Restorative Infrastructure Systems. Etuk, who is currently The Ray’s Partnership Coordinator & Research Analyst, used the opportunity to speak about The Ray - an initiative to transform the future of transportation by implementing new ideas and technologies to create a regenerative mobility ecosystem, starting with 18 miles of West Georgia’s I-85, and the land and communities surrounding it. Through a myriad of technologies, The Ray is proving that it is possible to improve the safety, ecology and beauty of highways and create net-zero highways.
Some of the technologies applied thus far include a solar-paved highway, smart planting to enrich the soil, retain clean water, and sequester carbon and creating rubber roads to reduce road noise and increase road durability. These techniques not only create clean power, but create more beautiful and more enjoyable public transport spaces.
Implementing Public Policy
Photo of Murgasse, Austria by Quaritsch Photography
Petra Gruber explored transforming transportation through the extremely pragmatic lens pragmatic lens of public policy. Public policy allows monumental change to spread through society through concerted effort to a specific goal. In this instance, Gruber highlights the Austria 2030 Mobility Master Plan - an attempt by the Austrian Government to realign their mobility sector to meet the requirements of the Paris Climate Agreement. It represents programmatic approach to significantly increasing eco-mobility in total transport. This plan represents the electrification of transportation and investment into emission free infrastructure and vehicles, inclusive of foot and bicycle traffic, public modes of transport, and shared mobility.
A total investment of EUR $1,671M is set to creating a carbon-free transportation system to reduce their 79.8 million tonnes of total CO₂ emissions. The Austria 2030 Mobility Master Plan is a pioneering example of how intentional public policy creates monumental increases in eco-mobility within a country.
Transportation and the Caribbean
What does this have to do with the Caribbean? As a region disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change, there are three major learnings:
Be Imaginative
Challenging our expectations for our future is paramount. An expectation that we must wait for global powers to solve our problems will leave us at their mercy. Creating ingenious solutions that are crafted for our unique circumstances will always create an impact more monumental than adapted solutions for different markets.
Revolutionary thinking about our relationship with the environment can already be seen happening in the Caribbean. A marvellous example of this is Rum & Sargassum - a Barbados-based company focused on battling three issues simultaneously: rising fuel prices, sargassum littered beaches, and by-product waste from the rum industry. Astoundingly, they’ve found a way to solve all these issues by creating a bio-fuel made from the rum distillery wastewater, Sargassum seaweed, and manure from the Barbados blackbelly sheep. Through this, Rum & Sargassum have created a solution that has the potential to save $120M USD in beach restoration costs caused by rotting Sargassum seaweed through Bio-CNG. Furthermore, if widely adopted, it can reduce the 103,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions caused by cars in Barbados.
2. Development does not mean Destruction
Photo of HLSCC Students on a Mangrove Reforestation Project
Most development in the Caribbean is associated with destruction - destruction of the environment, destruction of culture, and destruction of community. Development of our region should not come at the detriment of what makes us who we are.
In the British Virgin Islands, following the devastation of Hurricane Irma, the British Virgin Islands have attempted to combine their physical development with environmental development, and combined economic prosperity with environmental protection. This has been manifested through their country’s push for developing the Blue Economy. Furthermore, the protection and growth of their mangroves has become a national concern, and is exceptionally managed by their local college, H. Lavity Stoutt Community College. The understanding of developing the Caribbean without significantly destroying the aspects that make it beautiful would go a long way in creating life-long solutions that keep island’s interests in mind.
3. The Need for Public Policy
Photo of Barbados by Tom Jur
Photo of Dominica by Anita Denuzio
Government has a massive role to play in tackling climate change. Public policy and law become reality. Although individuals can make change in smaller pockets, the power that public policy has to create the drastic change necessary to meet global climate goals is outlined in the Paris Agreement.
Barbados has set the trend beautifully by adjusting their Nationally Determined Contributions to hit their Paris Agreement goals. The most ambitious of these goals is to create a fossil-fuel free economy and ~0% Greenhouse Gas emissions by 2030. This intention was set into practice by the Roofs to Reefs Program (R2RP) which is a public investment program founded on climate resilience and environmental sustainability. Through a programmatic and pragmatic approach, Barbados is on track to a 70% reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions by 2030.
Dominica has a similarly ambitious Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan 2020-2030. Their plan revolves around creating a nation that is keenly aware that it is at the mercy of global powers that care little for the damage they cause to climate sensitive regions. As a result, the negative weather patterns that besiege the country will not stop, but it can be resilient and bounce back better. It aims to have 100% resettlement of individuals in physically vulnerable locations, a 50% increase in healthy coral reef coverage to protect coastlines and support fisheries and become completely carbon neutral through 100% domestic renewable energy production.
These initiatives represent positive strides in our region but 2/26 nations is not enough to mark success. It is imperative that all nations take a concerted effort to battle climate change on their shores. Through these steps, a Caribbean region prosperous in its own right, and through its own effort, is possible.
Biocene 2022 gave us a vision of what is possible. But imagining is the first step. The research up to the present has shown the world of possibilities at our fingertips once we invest in our futures. Now, more than ever, is the time to execute that change.
