Author Archives: Carroll

Increased Car Ownership and Growing Environmental Concerns

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Driving in India (http://helloji.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/driving-in-india_1.jpg)

Car ownership is increasingly feasible for citizens in around the world, as companies like Renault-Nissan work to develop cars that sell for as little as $2,500. While low-cost cars increase accessibility to transportation for many people, smog and traffic congestion are growing issues in clogged urban centers like New Delhi, India and Bangkok, Thailand. As auto transportation becomes more popular, however, it introduces many environmental issues such, as air and water pollution, which local governments in developing countries may not have the means to mitigate.

AIDS Highway: Spreading an Epidemic through Africa

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Journeyman Pictures takes viewers on a tour of Botswana’s Highway #1, nicknamed ‘AIDS Highway,’ and explores the lives of families, doctors, pastors, and communities dealing with the AIDS epidemic along the route. Human movement along the highway, along with high levels of prostitution at truck stops, spreads the disease through the African continent. With limited resources and political interest, it is difficult to educate and provide healthcare for the large number of people affected by AIDS, and the disease continues to spread.

Serengeti Railway-Highway Alert

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Photo by Faelourn

Hosted by the Earth Island Institute, a 501(c)3 conservation organization, the Save the Serengeti website and Serengeti Railway-Highway Alert were created to oppose the construction of a highway and/or railway that would bisect Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, Africa. The website also develops and mobilizes support against the highway, highlights ongoing conservation efforts, and raises funds for projects within the park.

This site is intended to attract donors to Serengeti Watch, with many opportunities to donate money throughout the website. The site is well organized and the Highway Alert section links to many other articles on the topic, such as those from National Geographic and the New York Times, and also includes many maps and videos. In addition, the site has an extensive comment section, allowing users to interact with the moderators and express their own opinions on the subject.

The informal, news alert format of the Highway Alert section allows everyday readers to easily read the content and understand complex socio-environmental forces that come into play in the Serengeti Highway debate. The site, however, is very one-sided and there are no references or links to articles or studies with conflicting opinions. This bias makes sense though, since one of the main purposes of the site is to attract donors. Hopefully this website will peak the interest of readers and encourage them to seek out more information about the Serengeti Highway, as well as become more educated about the socio-environmental impacts of road and rail systems throughout the world.

Over, Under, or Across: Wildlife Overpasses

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As highways continue to fragment natural landscapes, wildlife overpasses, such as this proposed design in West Vail, Colorado, are an innovative way to maintain habitat connectivity and allow safe wildlife movement. These overpasses prove to significantly reduce collisions between cars and wildlife, such as in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada where wildlife under- and overpasses have reduced wildlife factalities by 80 percent (FHWA, 2011). It is important to consider how to reduce the negative effects of habitat fragmentation when examining road development in order to protect both wildlife and drivers.

Federal Highway Administration (2011). Designing the next generation of wildlife crossing. Focus, Accelerating Infrastructure Innovations. Retrieved from http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/focus/11mar/11mar02.cfm.