robin stanier's story of The effect of aviation on the environment
The globe, 30 June 2007I am a retired engineer and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and I have recently realised that aviation has the potential to have a severe effect on the climate. The amount of CO2 emitted from aircraft today may be a small 2% of total emissions but as aviation continues to grow and other land based emitters reduce the amount of CO2 they emit aviation will become one of the worst polluters. We do not have to stop aviation but we do have to fly in a more environmentally friendly way. Things we can do are use turboprop aircraft instead of jets, fly a bit slower, do not fly short ranges (up to 800kms) where land transport can be more efficient, and do not fly stages over 5000kms which is extravagent in fuel usage. The aviation industry in innovative and modern aircraft are more efficient than the ones they are replacing but more has to be done.
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