Burn the Jets; Warm the Planet

Ethical Consumer

A plane uses about as much fuel as if every passenger on the plane had driven a car the same distance, with the CO2 emissions to match. The total warming effect of all airplane emissions is 2 to 5 times greater than that of CO2 alone, making jet travel the world’s most polluting mode of transport. Air travel is growing by 7 percent per year.

Currently, there is no tax on aviation fuel. If jet kerosene were taxed like automobile gasoline, a flight from London to New York and back again, would generate around £300 ($439) in tax revenue. While it takes longer to travel the same distance by rail, a train generates only one-third of the carbon emissions as a plane. Using a system designed to monitor an individual’s carbon emission impacts (www.chooseclimate.org), booking a round-trip economy flight between Britain and Australia would use up one passenger’s allowable carbon emissions for all heating, lighting and transport – for two-and-a-half years.

–Matthew Fawcett, Ethical Consumer [Unit 21, 41 Old Birley Street, Manchester M15 5RF, United Kingdom, +44 161 226-2929, fax: -6277, ethicon@mcr1.poptel.org.uk

You Make Our Work Possible

You Make Our Work Possible

We don’t have a paywall because, as a nonprofit publication, our mission is to inform, educate and inspire action to protect our living world. Which is why we rely on readers like you for support. If you believe in the work we do, please consider making a tax-deductible year-end donation to our Green Journalism Fund.

Donate
Get the Journal in your inbox.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Subscribe Now

Get four issues of the magazine at the discounted rate of $20.