Killing Penguins - A hungry penguin's explanation for the urgency of sustainable transport

In this post I'd like to talk about penguins, the "formally dressed" aquatic flightless birds mostly inhabiting the southern hemisphere. Although not all penguins are found in cold regions, I'd like to talk especially about those living in Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic region.

I am not an ecologist, not a trained environmentalist, to be frank I don't even particularly like penguins any more than other species of animals. But, as so far there is only one planet for us, for better or worse, humans and penguins are co-tenant of this earth. Although my current housemate is amazing, I have had my share of annoying housemates and neighbours in the past (the noisy ones, the sloppy ones, the nosy ones who think that if you don't live your life the way they live theirs you are doing it wrong) and I believe it would be great if we could put more effort into our cohabitation with the penguins.

I'd like to say that no actual penguins are harmed as you read this post, but sadly that would be inaccurate. Thousands of penguins are losing their home in the Antarctic. Although it is easy to forget, to pretend, that we do not have a part to play in their demise, let us take responsibilities on our actions. How do our behaviour affect these flightless birds? How can sustainable transportation help them? Let's hear it from them.

Emperor penguin chicks - one of the antarctic penguin species

image source: penguins-world.com

Concept

Let's imagine a first scenario.

Well, this situation is a little grim for the penguins, right? Without food my pet penguins would die! Let's now examine a second scenario.

The approach taken here is known in economy as Pigouvian Tax. It is a tax proposed by Arthur Pigou in 1920 to limit consumption on some products, in this case, the anchovies. Now there are 20 pieces of anchovies left to feed the penguin. But, is that enough?

In this scenario the penguins can live, but in the scarcity of food they will be living in survival mode. They will live but because their lives would focus around managing the scarce resources of food, they won't be thinking about breeding and having chicks because they cannot be sure that there will be enough food if there are more mouths to be fed. The bottom line, they will live but they won't be happy.

Which brings us to scenario 3.

I am now securing 40 anchovies for my penguins and sell the rest to the market. If every fisherman with pet penguins do the same thing, anchovies will become a rarer product in the market. People who really want to buy anchovies will need to compete with other buyers to get the oily fish. They would have to pay more, and the anchovies will be sold to those who are willing to pay more, like in an auction. This approach is known in economy as Coasean Bargaining theory proposed by Ronald Coase in 1960.

In this situation my penguins are now happy. They are not just surviving anymore, they are thriving.

How is this about transport?

The three illustrations above are simplification of our cohabitation in this earth with penguins. The main message is that there are a limited number of resources and we have to share them. In real life, we're not really competing directly with penguins for the same resources. We don't just eat anchovies, if all the anchovies are reserved for the penguins we still can find other food, and no matter how much or how little we drive, no penguins would drive a motor vehicle in the near future (although, wouldn't it be really cool if they do!)

Driving penguins - from the Penguins of Madagascar animation

As we drive, our cars emit carbon dioxide (CO2). Transportation is accountable for almost a quarter of global CO2 emission and private vehicle contributes an overwhelming 60% of transport CO2 emission. As one of the main greenhouse gases, the presence of CO2 in the atmosphere causes an increase in the temperature of the sea ice where some species of penguins live. The warming of the sea ice reduces the population of fish which provide important nutrients for the penguins. Furthermore, it also harms the quality of many penguin nesting sites. Antarctica has a cold and dry climate which suits the penguins but due to global warming it starts to rain more and snowfalls melt faster. Although penguins are aquatic birds, penguin chicks are not hatched with waterproof feather, they could not survive the wet environment and will die from hypothermia. More information about how antarctic penguins are affected by global warming can be found in many articles such as this one.

Do not be deceived by the long chain of reaction between us driving our cars to the penguins dying. It is real and it is happening right now. Many approaches have been taken to ameliorate this situation. The Pigouvian Tax (the taxing of the anchovies) is intended to penalise people who are using products with negative externalities, such as driving. As I have discuss on my previous blog post, one of the externalities of road transport is environmental externality. Cities like London and Stockholm have put in place a congestion charge based on the Pigouvian tax to account for the detrimental environment effects of driving.

At times, however, as illustrated by the scenarios, Pigouvian tax is not enough. One of the main problem is the difficulty to accurately calculate the monetary amount of the external costs of driving, in other words, we don't really know how much the tax should be. This is where the Coasean approach may come in handy. In Pigouvian Tax, you start by increasing the price of a product then see what happens with the consumption. In Coasean bargaining you start by limiting the number of products you want in the market then let potential buyers decide what the buying price would be. The Coasean theory earned Ronald Coase his Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1990.

The electronic road pricing (ERP) in Singapore is based more on the Coasean theory rather than the Pigouvian tax. While the road charge in London and Stockholm are fixed, Singaporean road charge varies based on historic data on the number of vehicles were on the road at a given time of day and day of week. Then, the charge is determined to get a desirable number of vehicles on the road. For example, if last week on Monday morning the charge was 10 Singaporean dollar and there were 1.500 cars on the road and this week we want there to be 800 cars, then the charge will be raised above 10 dollars. More discussion on congestion charge and how it affects the number of drivers can be found on second blog post.

What can we do to stop killing penguins?

Whether or not there is a congestion charge in your city, you can help stop the killing of the penguins by being more considerate about your driving habits. I am not asking you to stop driving completely and forever. But try to keep it to the minimum and ask yourself these questions before you decide to take your car out for a drive:

You may be thinking that you are only one person out of millions and that your behaviour doesn't really matter. But it does matter, and as the so-called superior species of the earth we should do what we can to help the lives of other living beings in this earth better, or at least not worse than it already is. At individual levels we can be more aware of the impacts we cause to the earth and when enough people start doing it, some visible changes will begin.

That is why I'm asking you to share this dream of sustainable transport. Share this post, I am not writing for popularity, not for money nor glory (okay, maybe a little for glory). But I write mostly for this dream to come true.

I would like to draw some inspiration from Dr Seuss, the children literature author. "I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues."

I am here, speaking for the penguins. I speak for the penguins whom, despite their tongues and their sounds, are not being heard. I speak for those who are losing their houses, who are struggling for food, who have as much right as we do to live in this earth in peace. I speak for them, and quoting another wisdom of Dr Seuss:

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."