Hi everyone!
Welcome to our first flight into the skies of air pollution – this post will be focusing on air pollution that we generate from flying to our tourist destinations, something that might be overlooked when one thinks of pollution from tourism, as the tendency is to focus on pollution generated in the destination.
We’re quite sure that most of you have heard of the tagline “A Great Way to Fly” by the national carrier of Singapore, Singapore Airlines (SIA). However, could flying also be a great way to… die?
Killing ourselves through carbon emissions
Greta Thunberg sailing instead of flying (Getty, 2019)
Carbon emissions is one of the most obvious forms of air pollution with widely-acknowledged far-reaching climatic effects; in recognition of this, the Greta Thunberg, an acclaimed and well-known climate activist by now, has regularly made the news for her choice to sail to conference destinations instead of flying by airplane, citing the large amounts of carbon (CO2) emissions associated with it.
But just how much carbon emissions does travelling by airplane emit? Drawing from various studies, a BBC news article cites that more than 100g of emissions are released per passenger for every kilometer travelled, which is at the very least double of other modes of transport like cars and trains. As a whole, the aviation industry was responsible for 2.4% of CO2 emissions in 2018 from fossil fuels, which equates to 918 million metric tons; the picture gets bleaker when we consider the reported trend of a 32% increase in emissions from the airline industry in the past five years (Graver et al., 2019).
More frightful than that, however, are the estimates that – without decisive action to ameliorate carbon emissions from the industry – aviation will take up to 27% of the world’s carbon budget by the year 2050 if it follows the projected increase of 5% in international flights every year. (Carbon Brief, 2016) All of this, then, simply means that if for the love of travel we keep flying around, we’ll be emitting more and more carbon emissions – eventually killing the earth (and ourselves) in the process.
Killing ourselves with other pollutants
It must be acknowledged that airplanes do not just emit carbon – they emit a host of other pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), all of which are primary pollutants mentioned in our introductory post i.e. they’re known to be harmful to humans!
While you might think that such a link might be a stretch because plane emissions are mostly generated in the air, we urge you to reconsider your opinion – there are actually more yearly deaths from toxic plane emissions than from a plane crash, with 10 000 deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases per year associated with plane exhaust generated both in the sky and on land (Inman, 2010). In a separate study, researchers put the figure higher at an estimated 16 000 people die prematurely each year due to aviation emissions such as ozone (O3) and PM2.5 (Yim et al., 2015).
A great way to…
With figures and statistics like these, we can only come up with an extremely colloquial response – yikes. But is there a way to do better for the environment?
In an informative video, the BBC suggests packing lesser items, travelling by economy instead of business class and flying direct whenever you can, amongst a host of other suggestions. Such adjustments might be easy for some but difficult for others who might not want to give up creature comforts.
If by now you’re not sure what to feel about this post (or flying in general), there’s one thing you need to remember: while you might be flying to paradise for now, you might be flying your way into ruin in the future.
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References
Carbon Brief 2016, Analysis: aviation could consume a quarter of 1.5C carbon budget by 2050, viewed 21 September 2020, https://www.carbonbrief.org/aviation-consume-quarter-carbon-budget
Graver et al. 2019, ‘CO2 emissions from commercial aviation, 2018′, The International Council on Clean Transportation, viewed 21 September 2020, https://theicct.org/publications/co2-emissions-commercial-aviation-2018
Inman, M 2010, ‘Plane exhaust kills more people than plane crashes’, National Geographic, viewed 21 September 2020, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/101005-planes-pollution-deaths-science-environment/
Yim et al. 2015, ‘Global, regional and local health impacts of civil aviation emissions’, Environmental Research Letters, vol. 10, no. 3, doi: https://doi-org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.1088/1748-9326/10/3/034001