GREEN Style: The Hidden Cost of Modern Aviation

 When we go to a busy airport where hundreds of planes take off and land every minute, we do not notice how many planes are in the sky, we are busy with our luggage, or preparing a presentation for a meeting in a crowded airport lobby, or make a last moment corrections in the speech. As of April 2024, 6 million people fly on a given day, and roughly 100,000 flights take off and land. However, we know from the flight radar that 8,000 to 20,000 planes are in the sky at a given time. The sky is the busiest between 2-4 pm on a Friday in July and August.

The advantages we gain from airplanes come at a cost; both money and environmental. Flights rely on jet fuel; a complex mixture of hydrocarbons, including aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. Jet fuel is derived from crude oil through a series of processes, and has a higher flash point than gasoline, which reduces the risk of fire.

ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) is a United Nations Agency that sets standards and regulations for civil aviation. According to IACO, 3.16kg of CO₂ is emitted per kilogram of jet fuel. Another 0.5kg CO₂ should be added for the transport and refinery process. After the Covid pandemic, 4-5 million barrels of gasoline are needed to fly large numbers of commercial and non-commercial flights. Aviation contributes to 2.5 to 3.5% of global carbon emissions.

Air pollution from the flights is not caused by CO2 only, other pollutants and gases are also emitted, such as nitrogen oxide, water vapor, soot, sulfur aerosols, and water contrails. These non-carbon dioxide pollutants and gases have warming effects twice as strong as CO2. Contrails are cloud-like streaks that form when water vapor condenses around soot and dust in the atmosphere. They can contribute to climate change by increasing cloudiness, triggering the formation of larger clouds, and contributing to surface warming. Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are non-CO₂ emissions from airplanes that contribute to global warming. Soot from airplanes can modify natural clouds. The altitude at which airplanes operate can trigger cloud formation.

We use aircraft to speed up our journey, increase our business, expand our knowledge, and enjoy entertainment. Unlike any transport on the road that uses diesel or petrol or octane or even compressed natural gas- fuels that we know can harm our environment by polluting the air-we often try to reduce this pollution by buying small cars and small vehicles. Unfortunately, we don't have enough awareness of the damage we are causing to the environment by air travel. In my writing, I didn’t mention the effects of building large airports, transportation concentrating the airports, food, and other services for the passengers in and outside the flights. If all these are added up the total pollution will increase significantly.

Finally, I would like to say that we have alternative solutions to many of our problems that we can find if we want, we just need our goodwill and sincerity. We should conduct more awareness activities in this regard locally and internationally. We will always take that action to ensure sustainability.