Did you know that one return flight from New York to Paris produces 1.9 tons of carbon emissions?! According to David Suzuki, a well-known environmentalist, “The total carbon impact of a single flight is so high that avoiding just one trip can be equivalent to going (gasoline) car-free for a year.” (source)
For many of us, it’s been over a year since we got on a plane to embark on an adventure, explore a new city, or wander down mountain trails in a faraway land. COVID literally grounded us, and airlines, all over the world.
Now that things are opening back up, flights are starting to take off again, and I know we are all itching to dust off our passports, pack our bags, and get back out there.
But what the last year has also shown, is that when planes are grounded, so are carbon emissions — during the peak of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, CO2 emissions from aviation were reduced by up to 60 percent! (source)
Why is flying bad for the environment?
It takes a lot of energy to get a plane up in the air, and then keep it there for hours and hours. And currently, most of this energy is generated by fossil fuels. The emissions from flights stay in the atmosphere and can continue to warm it for hundreds of years. According to David Suzuki, “Because aircraft emissions are released high in the atmosphere, they have a potent climate impact, triggering chemical reactions and atmospheric effects that heat the planet.”
While there are many other industries that are finding ways to reduce their use of fossil fuels, the airline industry has not. In fact, carbon emissions grew a staggering 75 percent between 1990 and 2012 (source), and, if left unchecked, it is estimated that a quarter of all carbon emissions could be from planes by 2050.
There are electric cars — why can’t we have electric planes?
There are some electric planes in operation already, but they are small, and can only fly about 1,500 km at a time.
Batteries are heavy, and we just don’t have the technology (or the funding to put towards developing the technology) at the moment. So, at this point, electric planes are not the solution.
How to reduce your carbon footprint when you fly
The most guaranteed way to reduce your carbon footprint is to not travel by plane at all. But that is not a realistic option for many of us. So, what are our options to reduce our carbon footprint?
Fly only when necessary
Ask yourself if taking that flight is really necessary for your trip. Could you drive? Take a train? Ride the bus? Even though these other options still produce emissions, they are significantly less than a flight.
Take direct flights
Emissions are higher during takeoff and landing, so try and book flights that are non-stop and fly directly to your destination.
Choose an airline that is taking steps to reduce emissions
Do your research and make sure you are selecting airlines that are voluntarily taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint. This could be things like making sure their planes are full (or as full as they can be with new COVID travel restrictions in place) or flying planes that are built efficiently, so they don’t emit as much during the flight.
Offset your flights
There has been a lot of buzz around offsetting your carbon emissions when flying by purchasing a carbon offset.
What is a carbon offset?
A carbon offset is essentially something that you can purchase that is meant to compensate for the carbon emissions that you have contributed to. This can be done from an individual level, all the way up to a country level.
When you are purchasing a carbon offset to help with your carbon emissions from a flight, keep in mind that this is not erasing the carbon pollution that is being put into the air. That is still happening. What the offset does is, hopefully, contribute to an initiative that will help remove this carbon from our air in some way, or create other green initiatives or opportunities.
How to calculate the carbon footprint of your flight
There are a few good carbon footprint online calculators that will help you calculate the carbon emissions from your flight (they are pretty sobering).
These calculators also have the option for you to calculate other types of transportation, so you can see the difference between emissions, or calculate the emissions for your entire trip, rather than just your flight.
Here are two that I would recommend using:
How to decide which carbon offset to buy
Once you have calculated the carbon footprint of your flight, and decided to purchase a carbon offset, the impact that you make will be related to the project you decide to contribute to.
You will want to make sure that you are choosing an organization that is going to support projects that would not be happening if there was no extra funding from offsets, and one that is making a positive impact on the climate.
The two websites above, that you used to calculate your carbon footprint, both offer ways to donate that adhere to industry standards. The Gold Standard is considered to be the most respected company in the industry, however, as it was created to provide oversight to all of the different carbon offsetting programs that were popping up. “It ensures that key environmental criteria have been met by offset projects that carry its label. Only offsets from energy-efficiency and renewable-energy projects qualify for the Gold Standard. These projects encourage a shift away from fossil fuel use and carry inherently low environmental risks.” (source)
Most of the places that we, as travelers, are flying to visit — beaches, mountains, reefs, rainforests, coastal cities — are at risk. If purchasing carbon offsets help reduce our carbon footprint and makes these places healthy and safe for future generations, I say let’s become part of the solution, not the problem.
Photos in this post are by Sam Willis from Pexels and Isabella Mendes from Pexels.
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Meet The Author
Lindsay Shapka is an avid traveler and the creator of The Anthrotorian — a website dedicated to sharing travel tips, stories about adventures, culture quirks, artists you should know, fascinating bits of history, and more!
She is also an artist, marketing specialist, editor, and freelance writer who has work featured on websites, blogs, and in magazines like National Geographic Traveler.
Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, is a fascinating city. It's perched right on the border between Western and Eastern Europe and with that comes a complicated history.
Until the late 1980s Hungry was communist, not moving to a democratic government until 1989. There is also a heavy influence from ancient Roman and Turkish occupation that has led to an interesting mix of architecture, culture, and historic spots to visit.