Wheels and Warming: The Climate Costs of Transportation in Small Islands
What are the linkages between human behaviors, transportation infrastructure, and climate change? What is black carbon? These are some of the questions that guided my mini-ethnographic project in Caribbean Anthropology. “Black carbon is formed by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, wood, and other fuels” (Climate & Clean Air Coalition 2020). Also known as soot, emissions of black carbon can contribute to climate warming, decrease of crop yields, and death of living organisms. Because I’m constantly on the road in Trinidad, driving my own vehicle, I had casually observed lots of exhaust from vehicles. I learned this exhaust can contain carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, among other greenhouse gases that can be damaging to the environment. I decided to do participant-observation with fellow drivers in Trinidad and Tobago (in person) as well as (virtually) in the neighboring island of Saint Lucia to consider how peak hour traffic contributed to emissions. Although thes