Fly Less

Everyone knows that air travel is bad for the environment. But according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, aviation is responsible for a mere 10% percent of global carbon emissions—as opposed to 61% from cars. Seems reassuring, doesn’t it? Kinda makes you want to hop the next flight to anywhere, right? But think about this: The global warming issues associated with aviation are alarming not simply because of the carbon dioxide (plus nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide) emissions, but because at the height that they are emitted, they have twice the effect on global warming that they do at ground level. So one jaunt across the Atlantic can produce as much ozone-depleting pollution as the average driver does in a year. Compound that with the fact that the average number of people flying is expected to double over the next 15 years, and yes, Houston, we have a problem.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2014 at 8:52 am. It is filed under Sustainability and tagged with air, air travel, climate change, global warming, planes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.