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Commercial flights are a rounding error. Why even bring them up? one year of coal power plants is about 10 years of all aviation

defrost 4y ago
For context: Global aviation (including domestic and international; passenger and freight) accounts for 2.5% of CO2 emissions and 3.5% of ‘effective radiative forcing’ (a closer measure of its impact on warming) [1]. which is low but NOT not "a rounding error" in the global context. The main reasons to look at aviation are that much of it slips through the fingers a it is "international" and not specific to single countries AND that the impact of aviation is rapidly increasing (albeit relatively stable against the qually rapid per capia overall emissions growth). How we consume and how we consume per capita are the big picture questions to be addressed, both population numbers and per capita emissions are growing. That said I think many agree that the old "why should I do anything when all these people are flying .." is a tedious lazy arguement. [1] https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-aviation https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-aviation
- raffraffraff 4y ago
  Low emission energy= nuclear, solar, wind, hydro Low emission home heating= heatpump (air, ground, water) Low emission ground travel= train, EV Low emission flight= Zeppelin?
- melling 4y ago
  Coal power plants are currently generating 20% emissions, and I imagine that’s a decrease. So, over the past 50 years, … If we made it go away 50 years ago, … But hey, let’s keep talking about aviation
  - defrost 4y ago
    I absolutely 100% agree with you - both coal* AND aviation contribute to the climate problem so let's talk about both. Check the IPCC reports, the margins of change require we address both, we are serious here after all and not simply hoping to greenwish inadequate changes magically solve everything.
- tharne 4y ago
  > That said I think many agree that the old "why should I do anything when all these people are flying .." is a tedious lazy arguement. It's not an argument against doing anything - we should definitely take action, but that's just not going to happen on a meaningful scale until it's too late. And that's because it's next to impossible to persuade people to make sacrifices when the person(s) asking/telling are themselves unwilling to make said sacrifices.

defrost 4y ago

For context: Global aviation (including domestic and international; passenger and freight) accounts for 2.5% of CO2 emissions and 3.5% of ‘effective radiative forcing’ (a closer measure of its impact on warming) [1]. which is low but NOT not "a rounding error" in the global context. The main reasons to look at aviation are that much of it slips through the fingers a it is "international" and not specific to single countries AND that the impact of aviation is rapidly increasing (albeit relatively stable against the qually rapid per capia overall emissions growth). How we consume and how we consume per capita are the big picture questions to be addressed, both population numbers and per capita emissions are growing. That said I think many agree that the old "why should I do anything when all these people are flying .." is a tedious lazy arguement. [1] https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-aviation https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-aviation

raffraffraff 4y ago
Low emission energy= nuclear, solar, wind, hydro Low emission home heating= heatpump (air, ground, water) Low emission ground travel= train, EV Low emission flight= Zeppelin?
melling 4y ago
Coal power plants are currently generating 20% emissions, and I imagine that’s a decrease. So, over the past 50 years, … If we made it go away 50 years ago, … But hey, let’s keep talking about aviation
- defrost 4y ago
  I absolutely 100% agree with you - both coal* AND aviation contribute to the climate problem so let's talk about both. Check the IPCC reports, the margins of change require we address both, we are serious here after all and not simply hoping to greenwish inadequate changes magically solve everything.
tharne 4y ago
> That said I think many agree that the old "why should I do anything when all these people are flying .." is a tedious lazy arguement. It's not an argument against doing anything - we should definitely take action, but that's just not going to happen on a meaningful scale until it's too late. And that's because it's next to impossible to persuade people to make sacrifices when the person(s) asking/telling are themselves unwilling to make said sacrifices.