Environmental impact of aviation

[Tubkal]

Climate change has been in vogue for at least the last 20 years,and became really trendy this last year. Hopeless governments have been striking pretty hard the automotive sector for example. Apparently the EU charges 90€ for each extra gram of CO2 per km to manufacturers that don’t meet the emission levels criteria. Aviation has been kind of immune to all the emission regulations, but finances made aerodynamics and engines more fuel efficient, which means less emissions. However, making flying more profitable created more routes, more aircrafts, the horrid ULCC, and the proliferation of ultra short domestic hops on medium sized jets (Ryanair...). In Europe, the average airline fuel consumption per passenger in 2017 was 3.4 L/100 km (69 mpg‑US), 24% less than in 2005, but as the traffic grew by 60% to 1,643 billion passenger kilometres, CO2 emissions were up by 16% to 163 million tonnes for 99.8 g/km CO₂ per passenger...

My point is what we could do as professionals in this unregulated sector to help out with this phenomenon. For years I’ve been trying to be conscious about my own impact and try some personal measures.For example, I love flying, but I rather taking the train between two neighbor European cities than taking an easyJet flight on a 319. All the waste of paper from documents, charts etc.. I think that technology is reliable enough to computerize all our documents. 99% of the airlines have already installed EFBs, mostly for WB purposes, but I think we could still do better.

Why does NAVCanada needs to print the f#]¥\!{ Canadian Flight Supplement every 56 days instead of providing an online version to everybody (I know that some paying apps have access to it). After 56 days, useless.

To sum up, I’m not trying to attack aviation for being so ‘careless’ about the environment. Aviation is an essential part of our globalized society, and we can’t just blame it for the needed emissions to run such a needed industry, but I believe that we could do small things to make our reduce our impact. Things like taking your own mug to work instead of using paper cups everyday, recycle used oils, respect the beautiful Canadian wild by overflying it highly enough to don’t scare the beasts... I bet that each one of us could find their own ways, but first we need to be aware that climate change might be more serious of what we believe nowadays

Maybe reducing the number of non essential Sunday morning VFR flights? Well now, that’s a hard one

[photofly]

NavCanada is ceasing print publication of the CAP in November 2020, and the paper CFS will be gone soon, too. You can buy the pdf version already.

[C-GGGQ]

Fltplan go app gets CFS and all cap charts every 56 days free

[Heliian]

Paper keeps the mill and presses running though. Engine manufacturers have been cutting emissions, mainly for efficiency and cost savings. We are slowly getting there.

[digits_]

Nuclear fission and new battery like technology is all you need. Give it another 50 years.

[C.W.E.]

None of this will matter twelve years from now because we will all be dead from climate change due to all the carbon we have polluted the planet with.

[Donald]

Is aviation really that essential?

Does everyone NEED cheap flights to their all-inclusive?

Should business people and government folk always fly for face to face meetings, instead of FaceTiming/conference calls?

Do northern communities need instant pop and chip resupply flights?

I bet 90% of aviation could, and maybe should be eliminated.

But that won’t be a popular opinion here.

[jakeandelwood]

This global warming bit is getting to be a bit odd, we can barely predict the weather next week but we can predict a 3 degree temperature rise in 50 years? I'm from B.C. and I've never seen a shorter, colder and wetter summer than this last one, isn't it snowing in Calgary today? If this global warming is really happening and it's caused by humans maybe the fact that our population is completely out of control is a major factor, but hey if you want to listen to a tween named "Greta" tell you that you're "destroying the planet and her future" by flying around for a couple of hours in your Cessna 150 on a summer sunday then let's all get in line.

[RILEY]

This global warming bit is getting to be a bit odd, we can barely predict the weather next week but we can predict a 3 degree temperature rise in 50 years? I'm from B.C. and I've never seen a shorter, colder and wetter summer than this last one, isn't it snowing in Calgary today? If this global warming is really happening and it's caused by humans maybe the fact that our population is completely out of control is a major factor, but hey if you want to listen to a tween named "Greta" tell you that you're "destroying the planet and her future" by flying around for a couple of hours in your Cessna 150 on a summer sunday then let's all get in line.

You seem threatened. Wake up, educate yourself, 'Climate change', again as the name suggests, refers to the changes in the global climate which result from the increasing average global temperature. Human greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming, which in turn is causing climate change, exactly what you have experienced this weekend. The fact of the matter is, putting an airplane in the sky today is harmful, however, as tubkel stated, being aware of that and consciously trying to make choices that mitigate other aspects of the job's impact can be done. Personally, jet fuel will be a thing of the past if not sooner than later, some sort of biofuel or fusion will be introduced. A net zero industry is what we should be working towards, and we can all do our part today in achieving that. Raise awareness, start talking about it, get it on the minds of others, BE THE CHANGE.

[complexintentions]

Nah. I'm hoping the 12 year prediction is correct and doing my best to burn my share of fossil fuels in every way imaginable.

"Save the planet"? Please. The planet will survive.

Us as a species? Maybe, maybe not. Don't really care, which is my default position for all things I have no control over.

The activists might be listened to if they presented remotely credible solutions to replacing fossil fuels as an energy source. But judging from the amount that drove to the recent protests it seems there is a complete disconnect between what is preached and what is done.

[altiplano]

"She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!"

Hysterics from a mentally challenged OCD tween completely lacking any credibility or life experience beyond an abiliity to get worked up over something she isn't qualified to comment on doesn't do it for me.

She"s a pawn, and while climate change is real, this whole idea of shutting down the Western economy benefits nobody in the world except China and Russia.

We ought to all know who's pulling these strings, whether it's the latest enviro crusader trend, Democratic "socialists", Antifa, or all the PC hyper identity political crap overrunning the West. Destabilization of the West is the outcome here.

[altiplano]

4q5rpajg80p31.jpg (94.12 KiB) Viewed 2030 times

[SkySailor]

This global warming bit is getting to be a bit odd, we can barely predict the weather next week but we can predict a 3 degree temperature rise in 50 years? I'm from B.C. and I've never seen a shorter, colder and wetter summer than this last one, isn't it snowing in Calgary today? If this global warming is really happening and it's caused by humans maybe the fact that our population is completely out of control is a major factor, but hey if you want to listen to a tween named "Greta" tell you that you're "destroying the planet and her future" by flying around for a couple of hours in your Cessna 150 on a summer sunday then let's all get in line.

You seem threatened. Wake up, educate yourself, 'Climate change', again as the name suggests, refers to the changes in the global climate which result from the increasing average global temperature. Human greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming, which in turn is causing climate change, exactly what you have experienced this weekend. The fact of the matter is, putting an airplane in the sky today is harmful, however, as tubkel stated, being aware of that and consciously trying to make choices that mitigate other aspects of the job's impact can be done. Personally, jet fuel will be a thing of the past if not sooner than later, some sort of biofuel or fusion will be introduced. A net zero industry is what we should be working towards, and we can all do our part today in achieving that. Raise awareness, start talking about it, get it on the minds of others, BE THE CHANGE.

Or maybe....

[SkySailor]

4q5rpajg80p31.jpg

Pretty much sums it up.

[pelmet]

It’s just a scam by the left designed to raise taxes. If Trudeau was serious about reducing carbon emissions then he would pass a law to reduce carbon emissions(less driving/flying/shipping/ trains allowed). Instead, he raises taxes and there is just as much driving/flying/shipping/train activity. Result....same/similar carbon emissions and higher taxes. How can people not see a scam when it is obvious.

[valleyboy]

We can start by turning off and getting rid of all mobile phones in the world (19,000,000 kw/day based on 6W charging/phone/day) -- and then outlaw social media ask the teenagers to sacrifice those.

I see Petrocan advertising a xCanada charging system being in place --- NOT and looking at the distance between proposed charging stations north shore superior there isn't many cars that have those legs, especially in the winter and with big hills.

Climate change is all well and good but not many acknowledge that natural occurrences such as volcanoes and wild fires can be far more devastating and in a lot shorter time.

Certainly there are far too many aircraft flying commercially and one of the major facts in aviation is that when a company is existing on marginal profits and mostly losses means short cuts are made such as maintenance and efficiency. Short haul (1000 km or less with connected land mass) should have hyper links and I for one think that tech should be fast tracked. It will be or should be the transport of the future and replace the existing airline commuter network.

[PilotDAR]

Climate change is a reality. I have observed it as a long time observer of the weather I'm trying to fly in, and the two polar research airplanes whose system installations I approve to measure it have proven it to me objectively. I see that in the last 12 years since I have been approving the climate measuring equipment, that the climate has changed.

I'm not a chemist, nor meteorologist, so I'm not asserting why the climate is changing, I just observe that it is. I can understand how low lying populated areas feel threatened, having worked in the Malidves, among other low lying places (though the Dutch and Germans seem to have secured their lowlands against sea level rise, and storm surges).

In the mean time we humans, though perhaps only a portion of the cause, cannot declare being blameless either. We waste monumental amounts of fuel (and thus wasteful carbon emissions) doing things just to save a buck. When I purposefully selected a "product of Canada" wood flooring for my house, I intended to provide work for fellow Canadians, while buying Canadian resources. I later found that the near half ton of BC native wood flooring I bought was indeed a "product of the Canada", but the labour was not. The plants were shipped to China, milled and finished, and shipped back to BC. I was angry, my house floors have a needless carbon footprint - I would have paid the extra to keep the work in Canada, and prevent the carbon emissions, if I'd known that the product of Canada was really not the labour, and the carbon footprint of that half ton of wood.

Is flying my Cessna an hour less a week going to affect climate change? Not really. But the mindset of conserving rather than being wasteful is a start. As I mentored a young lady in her family 180HP PA-18 a few years back, I told her: "Enjoy this now, because by the time you're my age, society will not tolerate people burning 8 gallons per hour of leaded gasoline to go 90 MPH." We, in GA, are happily not in the sights of the environmentalists. But when they feel that they have "fixed" the other climate offenders, they will then set their sights on us. It would be wise in the mean time to think conservation and awareness anywhere we can. Yes, one day, electric planes will have some limited practicality - if we can afford them!

So let's at least act like we care about the environment we fly over, and appear to take some responsibility for minimizing our footprint. It can't hurt....

[AirFrame]

"Save the planet"? Please. The planet will survive.

Us as a species? Maybe, maybe not. Don't really care, which is my default position for all things I have no control over.

The activists might be listened to if they presented remotely credible solutions to replacing fossil fuels as an energy source. But judging from the amount that drove to the recent protests it seems there is a complete disconnect between what is preached and what is done.

Your first point is spot on. The planet will survive with or without us. Your second point is really the crux of the problem. Everyone thinks "there's nothing *I* can do" when there really is. If we all cut back 1/3 of our emissions across our lives, in aggregate we definitely would have an effect.

Your last point is how any climate denier justifies throwing away the opinions of the environmentalists... "So what's your solution?" and when they don't have one, you dismiss their position. The problem is, and this is the same problem with Greta, that they aren't the experts. The environmentalists aren't the ones with the answers. They're trying to wake the population up to realizing that there *are* answers if you listen to the climate scientists. But nobody wants to do that, because the message from the climate scientists is to stop driving, flying, and in general doing anything that consumes a fossil fuel.

I don't know if I believe the 12 year number people are throwing around these days, but i'm not a climate scientist either. I've thought for many years that i'll be lucky if i'm even allowed to fly a private aircraft by the time I die. It's looking more and more like it'll be sometime in my retirement when we get legislated, or priced, out of reasonability.

[corethatthermal]

Human greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming

That statement has been shown to be patently false! Human produced CO2 levels are miniscule in comparison AND we live on a planet that has a natural climatic cycle ( Actually many cycles ) and the SUN is a big part of it.
The destruction of the western nations AND the wholesale OVERALL destruction of the planet and its inhabitants are my concerns NOT some money grabbing, globalist tool called the "global warming cult" !

[DadoBlade]

Unfortunately, a single volcanic eruption the size of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption would negate all the of G12's efforts in CO2 and hydrocarbon emssion reductions for several years.