Carbon footprint and airplanes

-

 Eco-friendly flight

How many times have you taken a fligh? Traveling to a new place, meeting new people and culture.  Did you know that flying cost more than just money?  It comes with a price to our environment.  Each flight you take contributes 285 grams of CO2 to our atmosphere, airplaines contributes more than cars, trains, boats and motocycles.  However, there is really a cleaner way of taking a plane and soon in the future, airplane will be more ecofriendly and efficient.


Résultat de recherche d'images pour "flight CO2"       
This image shows the difference in contribution of CO2 per passager for each transport

How does planes polutes?


Planes can pollute in few different ways:
  1. The material used to build the plane- If the plane is heavier, it will require more fuels, so it will burn more and release more carbon to our atmosphere.
  2. Meals served- We all know that cow's fart contribute a lot of methane (a green house gas) to a atmosphere, so  if you eat beef or just meat everytime, then it sure will contribute a lot of green house gases.
  3. The number of passager- If a plane had only few passagers or the cabin is half empty, then it would be a waste since it uses the same amount of fuel for less passager.



How to reduce our foot print?


There is a lot of ways to reduce our carbon footprint every time we take a flight:

  1. Choose airlines that pack their flight- it would reduce the carbon foot print per passager if the plane is full, because it uses the same amount of fuel for more people.
  2. Take aircrafts that are new- new aircrafts has more technology appropriate to reduce the amount of fuel used or the efficiency thus reducing the burning of fuel
  3. Take vegetables as meal-  Meat contribute a lot of green houses gases during its production

Some airlines compagnies justify their climate change actions by creating offsets such as tree planting to reduce the impact from flying.  At least, this is what they are claiming to do, some researchers suggest that this can actually do more harm than good.  They suggested that by giving us the impression that the air travel industry can be eco-friendly, we will feel more comfortable taking more flights.
National Geographic has a nice infographie about the future of aiplanes, for more informations please visit the link bellow.


Sources:
  • “Eco-Friendly Airlines.” Virgin America | Book Flights and Save, www.alternativeairlines.com/eco-friendly-airlines.
  • Glover, Andrew. “Sustainable Shopping: Is It Possible to Fly Sustainably?” The Conversation, The Conversation, 10 Jan. 2019, theconversation.com/sustainable-shopping-is-it-possible-to-fly-sustainably-88636.
  • Yutko, Brian. “5 Advances That Will Change Air Travel.” National Geographic, National Geographic, 27 July 2017, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/urban-expeditions/transportation/green-aviation1/.


 
 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Everyday application of Hess's Law

-
Image
  Everyday application of Hess's Law Burning calories, consuming food, driving home, we all should be familiar with these actions because we do them everyday, but what some of us don't realise is that all these actions related one fundamental law of conservation of energy, Hess's Law.   Hess's Law states that: regardless of the multiple stages or steps of a reaction, the total enthalpy change for the reaction is the sum of all changes. [1]   We will further discover how our indrustries, human body and drug production are related to this law and to better understand the science behind it. Industries Today, all our mass and low cost production depends on factories and industries and all these industries require huge amount of energy.   To keep everything the most efficient possible, these industries has to determine the method that is the most effective to produce a product based on the energy needed or released.   For example:  Car companies must determine ho
Read more

Antoine Lavoisier and his contribution to Chemistry

-
Image
The French Bourgeoisie helping out with science: “In performing experiments, it is necessary… that they be simplified as much as possible, and that every circumstance that could complicate the results should be completely removed.” -Antoine Lavoisier Early life and Work: On the 26 of  August 1743, Antoine Lavoisier was born to a wealthy family of nobility and was the son of an attorney at the Parliament of Paris. He  went to school at the College des Quatres Nations, University of Paris at the age of 11 were he studied chemistry, botany, astronomy and mathematics and received a law degree which admitted him the bar. (1). This French nobleman, chemist and biologist is credited for being the first one to put an extensive lists of the elements, helping construct the metric system and reform chemical nomenclature. Lavoisier is also known as the “ father of modern chemistry” (1). Lavoisier who was originally part of the Ferme generale ( most hated components of the F
Read more

Allotrope Blog Post: Graphite

-
Image
Graphite is a naturally occurring allotrope of Carbon. It is classified as the most stable allotrope under STP and its atoms are arranged in a hexagonal structure. Graphite has a very similar composition to that of diamond, but they have completely different properties and structures. Graphite is very soft and is used mainly in manufacturing and for being known as the “lead” in pencils. Graphite itself can come in many different forms. There is flake graphite, chunks of graphite, and it can be trapped in different substances such as marble and metamorphic rocks.  Graphite is an interesting allotrope because of the way the carbon atoms are positioned in the network covalent structure. Graphite is made up of many single layers of Carbon atoms that are off-centered from each other. This is what makes writing with pencils so easy. The graphite layers slide right off of each other because of the weak London Dispersion Forces between layers. This differs from other Carbon allotropes like dia
Read more