Air Travel on the Environment

Paper Summary:

This paper reveals that international air travel is not only the fastest-growing, but also the most polluting form of transportation. The paper explains the ways in which air travel disturbs the climate and discusses the limited responsive measures that have emerged internationally. The paper asserts that it is ironic that world governments exempted air travel from a treaty to control global warming.

From the Paper:

"Air travel is considered one of the most fuel-guzzling forms of passenger transportation (Murray and Durning 2004). Airlines make up for fuel costs by packing passengers. But per mile, a jet actually burns almost as much energy and emits as much carbon dioxide as an average driven car would. The carbon dioxide and other gases it emits powerfully affect and change the climate because they are released at a high elevation. The effects of carbon dioxide alone double in a short period. Other pollutants disappear in time, but carbon dioxide remains in the air where it traps heat for decades. These short-term effects occur mostly in rich nations in the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere (Murray and Durning)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• BBC News (2007). Climate change fight "can't wait." 6 web pages. BBC.co.uk: British Broadcasting Corporation
• Hilpern, K (2005). Flying towards a greener future. 4 pages. The (London) Independent: Independent Newspapers UK Limited
• Lean, G. (2006). Green taxes don't have to be a punishment. 2 pages. The Independent on Sunday: Independent Newspapers UK Limited
• --------- (2000). Airlines called to account over pollution. 2 pages. The (London) Independent: Newspaper Publishing PLC
• Murray, E. and Durning, A. (2004). Air travel heats up the planet. 3 web pages. Sightline Institute: Sightline.org. Retrieved on March 18, 2008 from http://www.sightline.org/research/energy/res_pubs/rel_air_travel_aug04

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