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Carbon 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 em
by MagnumOpus 9y ago
Carbon 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.