Hundreds of millions of school students and workers look forward to one thing; vacation. It allows for the brain to take a break from weeks of strenuous work and for the body to re-energize itself, plus who wouldn’t want to kick back and enjoy a little TLC? Some of the best ways to relax during vacation include traveling to distant locations, so that we can truly feel distant from the stress and work back home. But are vacations all good? Many people do not think about the negative effects vacations have on the environment.
“According to FlightStats, an online air travel stat source, an average of 90,000 commercial flights take off every day.” (Smithsonian) A 747 commercial airplane burns gas at a rate of five gallons per mile, so that means 8,255 gallons of fuel are burned per flight. And times 90,000 daily flights, equals about 740 million gallons of fuel burned every day by planes. Now you may ask, so what? Well our atmosphere takes a big hit from all this gas emission. “Jet fuel produces twenty-one pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per gallon burned.” (Smithsonian) These airplanes emit their fumes directly into the upper atmosphere where they may linger for a long period of time and cause more damage to our atmosphere.
Ever heard of our carbon footprint? That “footprint” is the amount of carbon dioxide each person creates. Burning any type of fuel creates carbon dioxide, so whenever we drive a car, or ride ion an airplane, we emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. All the carbon dioxide from burned jet fuel being put in our atmosphere is a large contributor to global warming. “Though air travel emissions now account for only about 5 percent of warming, that fraction is projected to rise significantly”. (NY Times) This is because more people can now afford to travel by air because the tickets are getting less and less expensive. The amount of people traveling by air is increasing much faster than the flight fuel efficiency levels.
For many vacationers, airplane flights are their biggest environmental sin. Research has shown that “One round-trip flight from New York to Europe or to San Francisco creates a warming effect equivalent to 2 or 3 tons of carbon dioxide per person. The average American generates about 19 tons of carbon dioxide a year.” (NY Times) Five long flights per year accounts for three-quarters of the carbon dioxide emissions you create.
Vacation doesn’t sound so nice anymore does it? It would be very beneficial for our earth’s atmosphere if fewer carbon dioxide emissions were circulating up there. But for the most part, not many people will give up a well-deserved relaxing trip, just for the environment’s benefit. So for now, scientists and engineers can work towards building more fuel efficient planes. These planes could reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being emitted into our atmosphere because of burning jet fuel.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-bad-is-air-travel-for-the-environment-51166834/#eKyGTAQYcFTyWGrl.99
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/sunday-review/the-biggest-carbon-sin-air-travel.html?_r=0