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The "digital nomads" I know fly more than anyone I know. The discounts they find make them beneficiaries of our not accounting for externalities of the pollutio
by spodek 9y ago
The "digital nomads" I know fly more than anyone I know. The discounts they find make them beneficiaries of our not accounting for externalities of the pollution from flying.
Does anyone know the carbon footprint or pollution levels their lifestyle causes? My intuition may be off, but they would seem high.
- MagnumOpus 9y agoCarbon footprint of flying is around 0.2kg CO2/mile, carbon footprint of commuting by car is around 0.4kg CO2/mile. So a car commuter with a 20 mile commute emits 2 tonnes of CO2 per year; a digital nomad without a car commute would need to fly around 20,000 miles a year to get the same amount of carbon emission -- which is the equivalent of two return flights from London to Bangkok, or 10-11 return flights from London to Lisbon. So they are roughly on the same order of magnitude as a suburban car commute, but could go substantially higher with weekly return flights...
- spodek 9y agoThank you for the comparison. According to this site https://co2.myclimate.org/en/portfolios?calculation_id=1057086 https://co2.myclimate.org/en/portfolios?calculation_id=10570..., London-Bangkok round trip by coach is 3.6 tons of CO2, so two r/t flights would be 7.2. The ones I know travel that much several times a year, which puts them over an order of magnitude above a suburban commuter, at least for travel costs. So compared to most of the world, who don't have cars to commute, they're multiple orders of magnitude over. Darn. I had hoped they weren't polluting so much. I hope they enjoy the environments they are helping pollute before they're gone.
- xya3453 9y agoSeems ingenuous to compare digital nomads that are flying around the world several times a year to commuters who never take vacations or fly for business.