I love Canada as much as the next patriotic Canadian but there is only so much winter one can endure. Hence, our family is going somewhere warm and sunny for a holiday.
When we think of carbon emissions, we usually think cars and industrial activity but surprisingly air travel leaves a heavy carbon footprint, too. In 2000, air travel accounted for 4 – 9% of the total climate change impact of human activity.* Compared to other ways of travelling such as trains and cars, air travel has a great climate impact per passenger kilometer, even over longer distances.* Furthermore, according to the European Federation for Transport and Environment, today’s passenger aircrafts are no more fuel-efficient than those that flew half a century ago.**
With all these statistics, we were wondering whether we should be flying at all! But fortunately, there are a few things that we can do to lessen our impact on the environment when considering air travel:
1. Minimize the number of flights you take in a year.
2. Flying in the daytime has less impact than flying at night.*** The warming effects of contrails (the trails of water condensation) is doubled at night because they continue to trap heat from the earth but don’t reflect the sun’s rays back into space as they do during the day.
3. Fly economy, as more people on the plane means fewer emissions per person.
4. Pack light because lighter planes means less fuel burned.
5. Purchase carbon offsets to account for the emissions for your flight. I won’t promote one carbon offset organization over another here but if you google “buying carbon offsets” you can have your pick.
* David Suzuki Foundation, “Air Travel and Climate Change,” http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/What_You_Can_Do/air_travel.asp
** European Federation for Transport and Environment, “Clearing the Air: The Myth and Reality of Aviation and Climate Change,” http://www.climnet.org/EUenergy/aviation/2006-06_aviation_clearing_the_air_myths_reality.pdf
*** New Scientist, “Night flights give a bigger boost to global warming,” http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19025564.900-night-flights-give-bigger-boost-to-global-warming.html
Seosamh says:
05/02/2009 at 12 h 30 minYes, I love Canada too, so let’s not be tripped up by US spelling conventions such as ‘kilometer’, when it should be ‘kilometre’.
Cheers
Christa says:
05/02/2009 at 13 h 39 minI am all for saving the planet. But maybe someone can tell me how to get to europe (other than flying) on time restrictions, when the whole family lives there and those visits are more of a necessety than a holiday – like going south in the wintermonth. Everyday we are aware of the implications our modern way of living is slowly destroying, what is left to save and no matter how much one want’s to their part, if everyone around you is just ignoring the warnings and going about their ‘business’- using poluting appliances outdoors, contaminating the air by burning garbage in their fireplaces, just to name a few of my neighbours ‘habits’. All the education in the world won’t help, convincing these people to change. At least you are listening to my concerns, everything, I’ve tried, has fallen on deaf ears.
Thanks for letting me get this of ‘my chest’.
Ruth W. Herbert says:
05/02/2009 at 15 h 43 minWhile we are correcting the spelling of kilometre, let’s also correct the pronunciation which is KIL’ O me tre! It is the only (as far as I know) “metre” word where so many people have mis-pronounced it, that you might find it accepted to accent the second syllable in a dictionary. It still grates on the educated ear to hear ki LOM’ it er. Thanks for your attention, R.H.
Audrey Grantham says:
05/02/2009 at 16 h 52 minWhat a bunch of crap! carbon footprint? That must be Al Gore and his extra gas he carries in his stomach, and the lights he burns and the hummers he drives and the multitude of planes he flies and he has become a billionaire on the backs of dumb people
Jill says:
05/02/2009 at 17 h 29 minThanks so much for a great article. It really helps to know there are some actions we can take to minimize the pollution we cause.
GildaBassi-Reuter says:
12/02/2009 at 17 h 24 minI wanted to try your product with a coupon
“try me free!’, the Wall-Mart store in
Mississauga(square one) did not have
de 2-roll pack of cascades,because they do not have
riceive il!!!
Eileen Griffith says:
12/03/2009 at 19 h 42 minI have a coupon that says “Try Me Free” for a two roll pack but none of the grocery stores have them. Please let me know which store in Toronto I can get this. Thanks
Eileen
edith says:
16/03/2009 at 8 h 52 minYou can buy Cascades paper towels in many Ontario Natural Food Co-op Stores. However, if you want to know where every Cascades products are sold visit this link:
http://www.cascades.ca/site/tissue-paper/where-to-find-our-products.html
If you still have difficulties to find these products, you can send an email to infoconsommateur@cascades.com call at: 1.800.567.1022
Hope it will help!