Aaron Cohen

Plane Polution

Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

Airplanes continue to come under fire for being anything but eco-responsible, perhaps spurred by this new report.

The U.S. airline industry discards enough aluminum cans each year to build 58 Boeing 747 airplanes, along with thousands of tons o plastics, magazines and newspapers. All of this waste represents unrealized potential for airlines and airports to save money, reduce global warming pollution and improve efficiency. -- NRDC via Makower blog

My sister just sent me an SMS that USA Today this morning that has a big story about jet polution.  And Joel Makower has a  related story.

 

source:  NRDC via Joel Makower blog.


From USA Today:

  • The FAA projects that the number of U.S. airline passengers will nearly double from 739 million last year to 1.4 billion in 2025
  • On a New York-to-Denver flight, a commercial jet would generate 840 to 1,660 pounds of carbon dioxide per passenger. That's about what an SUV generates in a month.
  •  Aircraft emissions pollute the air and threaten by 2050 to become one of the largest contributors to global warming, British scientists have concluded.

 

PHOTO SOURCE: USA TODAY

My two cents:  Sun employees do fly to meetings if we have shown ample justification.  For every flight we are required to get our manager, sometimes even VP-level, approval.  If it is a strategic meeting with a customer or partner and are not under strict travel restrictions we get approved.  But not all of the time.  I have been denied travel before if the trip is not considered strategic.  I think this is important to show your managers reports like these so they can further shape their own decisions on when flying is 'strategic'. 

Think about what can be done via email, phone, video conferencing, WebEx, etc.  Perhaps a New Years Resolution for myself: Fly Less in 2007 and instead of flying overseas or across country for vacation find interesting things to do right around my own town. 

One note from USA Today story: The biggest contributor of pollution is not airlines.  The biggest contributors are "vehicular traffic and power plants."  Even still, "its emissions are considerable."



[6] Comments
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Posted at 11:20AM Dec 19, 2006 by cohen in Did you know...
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"On a New York-to-Denver flight, a commercial jet would generate 840 to 1,660 pounds of carbon dioxide per passenger. That's about what an SUV generates in a month."

This is a false comparison on so many levels. First 840 to 1660 is a heck of a range. It's like saying a man is "four to eight feet tall". What is not said is how many people the 840 lbCO2 airplane and the 1660 lbCO2 airplane can carry compared to the SUV, and what is also not said is the SUV's CO2 output driving the 1,825 miles from New York to Denver, rather than a typical use. They class of SUV, is also not mentioned. SUVs can range from 4-cylinder Toyota RAVs to large 8-cylinder Chevy Suburbans.

1,825 miles of driving might be more than the "typical month" USA Today quotes. If so, the jet puts out less CO2. But the jet may carry from 150 to 300 people, which is 21 to 42 times as many people as a full-sized, seven passenger SUV. But when carrying 21 to 42 times as many people over 1,825 miles, the planes may produce little more than an SUV driving 1,825 miles, if 1,825 miles is a "typical month" of miles.

I wonder how many "environmentalists" who live near airports would not complain about a doubling of jet noise if new, more eco-friendly engines were louder. I wonder how many "environmentalists" complain about narrow seats and little legroom when those "features" allow more people to fit an airplane, which reduces CO2 per passenger.

Posted by Mark on December 19, 2006 at 11:48 AM PST #

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Posted by Pani on January 11, 2007 at 11:23 AM PST #

The back-of-an-envelope calculations which I did came up with the following numbers:

A typical long haul flight (average fuel consumption, average occupancy), puts out about as much CO2 EQUIVALENT per passenger mile as an average US SUV, driven with the driver as the only occupant (yes, this is "average" mpg, not the likely higher figures that you would get on a long trip but still...).

I say "equivalent", because according to IPCC figures, commercial aviation results in a global warming contribution ("radiative forcing"), which is about 3 times that of the CO2 emissions alone. This is due in part to the location of the emissions (at high altitude), and partly due to the other effects of the jet exhaust gases.

http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/aviation/064.htm

i.e. If every passenger on the plane, instead drove an average US SUV the same distance, then the global warming contribution would about be the same.

Of course, the difference is that I can clock up 8000 miles in a single day on a plane, whereas that would take me a couple of years on the road (even if I drove an SUV, which I don't). No, I don't drive much - I don't need to where I live.

When I calculated my personal carbon footprint for a year, I got out: 1.5 tons CO2 equiv for all contributions from travel (except flying), heating, electricity. Pretty low for someone in my country (the UK - 10 tons per person year on average). Unfortunately, I converted that low figure to a total of 15.5 tons when I counted in my air travel for the previous year.

Posted by Tim Small on April 05, 2007 at 01:52 AM PDT #

Hi Aaron

Many ideas of how private and corporates can reduce their poluting emissions can be found at http://www.alternativeenergybase.com which is alternative and renewable energy article directory where writers publish their articles on that important subject.

Posted by Alternative Energy Resources on August 13, 2007 at 09:41 AM PDT #

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Posted by 196.200.18.61 on September 11, 2007 at 06:23 AM PDT #

thats easy

Posted by 76.117.46.115 on November 19, 2007 at 07:17 AM PST #

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