Air Travel

The idea of green air travel at first seems impossible. Though air travel in 2009 accounted for about 2–3 percent of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, some estimates have annual aircraft emissions tripling by 2050, the same time period during which many efforts are scheduled to reduce emissions from all other sources. Air travel not only consumes vast amounts of nonrenewable fossil fuels but is also a major contributor to nitrogen oxide in the troposphere. The cumulative effect is such that the per passenger, per mile effect of air travel is nearly as great as that of each passenger driving the same distance himself and is significantly worse than that of small or hybrid cars, or ground mass transit (whether rail or bus). Aircraft contrails, high-altitude ...