- Flying may be a large portion of your carbon footprint. The aviation industry accounts for 11% of all transportation-related emissions in the United States. Take one round-trip flight between New York and San Francisco, and you’ve generated about 0.9 metric tons of carbon dioxide per person. That is equivalent of 20% of the greenhouse gases that your car emits over an entire year.
- For perspective, the global average was about five tons of carbon dioxide per person in 2013.
- Carbon footprint is defined as the amount of greenhouse gases and specifically carbon dioxide emitted by a person's activities or a product's manufacture and transport, during a given period.
- A typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. In addition to carbon dioxide, automobiles produce methane and nitrous oxide from the tailpipe and hydro fluorocarbon emissions from leaking air conditioners. The emissions of these gases are small in comparison to carbon dioxide; however, the impact of these emissions have a higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide.
- About 20,000 planes are in use around the world, serving three billion passengers annually. By 2040, more than 50,000 planes could be in service, and they are expected to fly more often.
- The most effective way to reduce your carbon footprint is to fly less often. The longer the distance, the more efficient flying becomes, because cruising requires less fuel than other stages of flight. So it’s certainly better to fly cross-country than to drive solo. If you’re taking a short trip, it may be better to drive.
- Flying nonstop can help. About 25% of airplane emissions come from landing, taxiing and taking off.
- When you buy carbon offsets, you pay money toward replanting trees, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- To offset the almost 0.9-metric-ton carbon footprint of a single passenger traveling from New York to San Francisco, Sustainable Travel International, which runs offset program, offers two choices: Donate $8.95 to a wind farm in Texas or donate $10.75 to a forest conservation program in Peru.
- The emissions associated with flying in business class are about three times as great as flying in economy class. In business class and first class, seats are bigger, so fewer people are being moved by the same amount of fuel. A first-class seat could have a carbon footprint of nine times as an economy one. Economy passengers have something to be happy about: smaller carbon footprints.
- The bio fuel is estimated to cut at least 60% of greenhouse gas emissions compared to regular jet fuel. It cuts the emissions used to make the fuel as well as the emissions from burning it.
- Researchers say that airplane crashes kills about a thousand people annually, whereas plane emissions kill about ten thousand people each year. About 80% by cruising emissions at high altitudes and 20% due to take off & landing emissions causing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
- Airplane pollution deaths at 10,000 a year still represent a small share. Emissions from ships kill an estimated 60,000 people a year, according to a 2007 study. The annual total death toll from air pollution is about a million, according to the UNDP.
Public transportation must be subsidized and encouraged in every form, especially if it is using electricity. Usage of personalized transportation must be restricted, discouraged and penalized. Business class & first class air travel should be discouraged and penalized. Pollution control norms for automobiles, industries etc must be strictly enforced. Environment safeguarding awareness must be promoted and encouraged.
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