Airplane Greenhouse Gas Emissions

By: Nina Stewart
About 20,000 planes are being used all around the world serving over 3 million passengers annually. This number is expected to double over the next decade resulting in an increased amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The average American generates about 19 tons of carbon dioxide a year, about 65% comes from air traveling. The traffic in the sky is releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases into the stratosphere around the globe, this is a contributor to the concern about global warming. The commercial flights fly at the bottom of the stratosphere where they exhaust CO2 all along the flight path. The emissions from the planes won't compact, instead, it will scatter at that altitude of the stratosphere, and gradually slowly descend to lower altitudes. This takes several years before we see its effects.
A round trip from Dallas to Chicago produces 0.5 tons of CO2 emissions for each passenger. In 2017, 42 countries in the world had lowered annual per capita emissions than this flight, accounting for 16.1% of the world's population. Carbon Dioxide isn’t the only concern, airplanes also emit other gases such as NOx, water vapor, and methane which have a major effect on the warming of our planet. These emissions are occurring at high altitudes, which means that the impacts are different at lower altitudes. The footprints contribute to the overall radiative forcing (also known as warming) and have about 1.5 and 3 times the impact that CO2 would alone. 
The problem with greenhouse gases is that we are adding more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the earth and handle. Especially CO2 because the environment balances itself out by cleaning the natural carbon emissions over time. The human made carbon emissions that we are adding to the environment are being trapped and not able to be cleaned up; thus results in the earth starting to heat up.


Most people think the best solution is to fly less; but, practically looking at this problem, that will most likely not happen. A solution that some airlines have come up with is using biofuels. According to United Airlines, using biofuels, which are composed of conventional petroleum-based fuels in varying amounts, have decreased the amount of greenhouse gases used in jet fuel by 60%. What you can do to help is to look at the fuel efficiency on the airline you are flying on. It may surprise you.
With our growing population the amount of greenhouse emissions that each person will be allowed to use will decrease over time. We are facing the dilemma that people aren't decreasing the usage of greenhouse emissions instead they are tripling it. So what are some more ways we can decrease the amount of greenhouse emissions when traveling? Since most people don’t want to give up traveling, what are other ways we can decrease the emissions in our normal lives? What do you personally think of this worldwide dilemma? 

Sources:
www.engaging-data.com/airplane-emissions/
www-personal.umich.edu/~murty/planetravel2/planetravel2.html
www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/climate_law_institute/transportation_and_global_warming/airplane_emissions/
www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/sunday-review/the-biggest-carbon-sin-air-travel.html?module=inline
www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/climate/airplane-pollution-global-warming.html
www.gdrc.org/uem/eco-tour/envi/one.html




Comments

Anonymous said…
Green house gasses have a huge impact on the atmosphere. But if airplanes were to stop providing services the global economy would begin to reach a global recession. They have become a crucial part of global trade and relations. But I think the best way to decrease vehicle emissions can be decreased by investing in more efficient energy converters or electric vehicles. Also using biofuels may release fewer emissions. Like you said it has shown better results and lower emissions.
November 5, 2019 at 7:36 AM
Adam Yook said…
It is really surprising to me how much greenhouse gas air travel creates, yet when I think about it, it makes sense. I think that as people become more and more aware of the impacts that global warming has on the planet, airline developers will work harder to improve efficiency of air travel as well as reducing carbon emissions. Another solution would be reducing the volume of flight travel to the same location in one day. Sometimes while at the airport, I see flights that have the exact same flight plan as my flight, but a couple hours before or after my flight. While eliminating these extra flights may be an inconvenience, I think it might be worth some inconvenience for living on earth.
November 5, 2019 at 7:03 PM
Anonymous said…
I for one, travel a lot, and most of the time we try to drive but we fly a lot too. Just depends. But either way our ghg emissions is ending up in the atmosphere. I always new its like polluting but i guess i never realized how much of it we were polluting. Like that’s a lot of pollution airplanes create. I think we need to spread the word and bring attention to this serious issue. It’s going to be hard to eliminate but i think little by little if we inform the public we can do something everyday to lower our co2 emissions.
November 6, 2019 at 11:02 AM
Anonymous said…
Often when I think about climate change from greenhouse gases I always picture cars or industrial factories, but it completely slipped my mind that airplanes are large contributors as well. I feel more light needs to be shed on the importance of finding different fuel usages for airplanes because from a distance the problem seems minimal, but keep in mind hundreds of flights land simply in one day at the Dallas airport. Calculating the number to the extent of each city and town around the world that contains an airport must be tremendous!
November 6, 2019 at 6:44 PM
Anonymous said…
This is a really tough issue because there are very few options. In most climate based issues there are multiple paths we can take to improve, but here there’s really on two options. We can either fly less or use cleaner fuel. Obviously the first option is unlikely, so we only have one path to take. All that can be done practically to reduce emissions from flying is using cleaner and/or more efficient fuel. I can’t think of another path we can really take, and I just have to hope scientists continue to work towards cleaner fuel for us all.
November 7, 2019 at 4:16 PM
Anonymous said…
It feels pretty bad knowing the specific amount of carbon dioxide you produce when flying. The best way to reduce emissions from planes might be to consolidate flights. A lot of flights like the ones that go from DFW to Houston typically aren’t even half full, and having multiple half empty flights a day almost all year round must produce a lot of carbon dioxide. This probably also happens with other smaller flights too and I feel that if companies could learn how to combine their flights, it would greatly reduce emissions.
November 8, 2019 at 12:16 PM
Anonymous said…
It’s sad how reliant we are on planes, but I don’t think that’s gonna change much. I think that private planes shouldn’t really be a thing. Boats are nice, but not if you have to get somewhere fast. My mom is a flight attendant and it makes me sad, but she loves it and there is such a need for it that I don’t think that’s gonna change.
November 11, 2019 at 9:25 AM
Urvi Vallapareddy said…
I knew that the emissions from airplanes was a big problem, yet it seems to be commonly forgotten about. I feel upset that flying i so bad for the environment, since traveling by plane is the most effective way to reach other places in the planet. I agree that flying will become even more widely used, so there should be, like you mention, better alternatives to fuel. I know how many people fly, and the neccessity for travel, so it is important that we preserve flying while simultaneously being more mindful of the environment. Urvi Vallapareddy
November 11, 2019 at 6:29 PM
Aerah Kim said…
Doubling the number of travelers is outrageous, I never really realized how traveling and driving to the destination can impact our environment. There aren't any "helpful" options for us to arrive at our destination but we could help post it on social media, spreading awareness grabs many people's attention, informs them on what's really happens to our environment when we do our everyday things like driving and traveling on a plane.
November 11, 2019 at 10:02 PM
Anonymous said…
It’s very hard to believe that one trip can produce so much greenhouse gas, and have such a huge environmental impact for every single person. It does make me wonder whether taking a trip via plane is more or less environmentally friendly than going by car or by train, and I’m curious to know what the most efficient, quickest form of travel is, because it doesn’t always seem like there are viable options for environmentally-friendly, low time-cost travel. Something clearly needs to be done, however, in regards to plane travel, because there seems to be an ever-worsening problem with planes and the amount of greenhouse gases they emit.
November 12, 2019 at 6:33 AM
Andrew Thomas said…
The presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is very important. Something needs to be done in terms of plane travel to reduce the number of greenhouse gases they emit. It is going to be difficult to reduce these number but we need to figure out ways to fix these issues.

-Andrew Thomas
November 12, 2019 at 5:42 PM
Anonymous said…
I do not think it is possible for our society to efficiently reduce airplane use. However, carpooling to school or to other events will help reduce emissions. Biking and walking to nearby places reduce the pollutants released by cars. Another way to reduce emissions is by using public transport in replace of cars. Buses help large amounts of people get to where they need to go without producing as much emission.
November 12, 2019 at 7:11 PM
Anonymous said…
Finding another fuel to reduce plane CO2 emissions may take an extremely long time to accomplish and will likely be very costly. We should not rely on the chance that a more Eco friendly fuel will come out for planes, but should try and make a difference right now. I think that increasing the size of airplanes can effectively reduce CO2 emissions because with more people in a plane there will be less planes that need to fly. On that note, private jets must be severely restricted, as emitting that much CO2 for one person is absolutely terrible for the environment.
November 13, 2019 at 9:57 AM
Anonymous said…
Since planes are such an integral part of our lives, I don't think we can necessarily cut down on emissions from that, but there are other ways we can cut down CO2 emissions in our day to day lives. We can carpool with other people, take public transport, or even bike or walk to reach our destinations.
November 13, 2019 at 12:21 PM
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