Material Minds
My family loves to travel and we do often. Although I sometimes wonder what our effect on the environment is. We have traveled across the globe from Switzerland to Hawaii. A lot of our travels are flown by plane which I am starting to realize is terrible for the environment. Even now google shows each flight’s carbon emission and one could base their flight pattern off the environment. After seeing that I wonder how big the carbon footprint of airplanes really is.
A carbon footprint measures how much climate warming one generates per day. One’s carbon footprint size is determined by the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. Products, people, and industries have a footprint. One’s footprint can grow everyday based on one’s lunch or their commute. They are measured by the amount of greenhouse gasses released.
Aviation causes 2.5 - 3% of the world's carbon emissions. Much of it depends on whether it is a short or long haul flight. Short haul flights will release more carbon during takeoff and landing while long haul flights generate a total mass. Believe it or not, what class you are flying in will also change the carbon footprint. A person flying in the spacious first class seat will take up more space which multiplies the share of an economy passenger by 2 or 3 times as much. Overall, the addition to global warming is only 4% but that is still a lot compared to the other additions.