I look at my European colleagues with envy as they can travel most places in the relative comfort of a train while I find it difficult, living in Ireland, to travel entirely by land and sea.
I found out recently that Newstalk Presenter, Ivan Yates, doesn’t fly himself. Exploring my own issues around aviation and environment seemed like an appropriate topic for our first chat as part of our exciting new weekly ‘Down To Earth’ slot on ‘The Hard Shoulder’.
Listen to our ten-minute chat here or read it about in much more detail in my Verdant Yank blog this week below.
|
Is flying really so bad?
So what can we do about it?
Tomorrow's Tech
- Fly lower and choose smaller plans – At the high altitudes (8-13km) flown by large jet airliners, emissions of nitrogen oxides are particularly effective in forming ozone and these have a greater global warming effect. Emissions from jet flights are substantially higher than turboprop flights– probably in part because of their lower cruising speeds and altitudes compared to jet airliners
- The Future is Electric - Adding an electric drive to the airplane's nose wheel may improve fuel efficiency during ground handling or integrating an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) which would act as a catapult for take-off on the airstrips. Some companies such as Airbus are currently researching this possibility because as a lot of fuel is used during take-off in comparison to cruising.
- Biofuels – Some companies are researching biofuel technology for use in jet aircraft and some aircraft engines can already run on vegetable oil or ethanol. since 2008, there have been a number of jet airline test flights conducted using biofuels but this has global environmental and social risks with respect to deforestation and converting farmland used for food production for production of biofuels for the aviation industry instead.
|
Policy Drivers
Getting Personal
Several of my colleagues now refuse to fly and I am always fascinated by their stories of “slow travel”. Climate scientist, Keven Anderson, once told me how much great work he got done on a 3-week train journey from the UK to China and back and how so many Chinese people turned out to see this “strange English man who had travelled by land to their country”.
|
|
To find out how much your flying impacts climate change and how it compares to other transport options visit www.carbonfootprint.com.
And as always, keep fighting the good fight! -Cara |