University of Texas at San Antonio. (2019, October 2). Carbon emissions soar as tourism reaches new heights. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 11, 2019 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191002121719.htm
Research at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has found that flight routes for tourist destinations have impacted the pollution in the air. Aircrafts release a great amount of carbon emissions. Data was taken for flights to ten of the most populated metropolitan areas and thirteen tourist destinations located in the Sunbelt or Western regions of the United States. The experiment was also to see how different the effects where based on whether the flight was direct or connecting.
The difference in emissions between connecting flights and direct flights was that direct flights created a lot more emissions. It is stated that the direct flight produced the amount of emissions equivalent to an operating refrigerator that has been operating for a year over the connecting flight. These results are important because they help innovation for the future. Airline companies are trying to construct planes that are just as efficient, if not more efficient, while reducing carbon emissions. On top of this, the experiment may also influence a change in pricing for the fuel in planes. I feel like this experiment was truly important because it put into perspective how much pollution aircrafts can create through the image that the difference in the emissions between types of flights was releasing as much as a refrigerator does in an entire year.
That’s really interesting! I wonder how the pollution being caused at the destinations will affect tourism in the future, maybe less people will be inclined to visit, partially solving the problem? It’ll be intriguing to see how it plays out.
This is very interesting. In terms of improving efficiency and reducing carbon emission, biofuel as an alternative fuel source. It has been successfully several times on commercial airline flights and more research on its potential use would be a great push towards reducing the environmental effects of running airplanes.
This was so cool to learn about. I didn’t realize that Aircrafts release a great amount of carbon emissions. I agree it really does put into perspective how much pollution aircrafts can create.
This is really interesting! I completely agree with you that these findings are super important, especially in this day in age where climate change is becoming a more imminent threat as every day goes by. I was really surprised to hear that just a single direct flight can emit an amount of carbon equivalent to the amount that would be emitted from leaving a fridge open for a whole year, because even though people are growing a lot more conscious about the adverse effects of fossil fuels and carbon pollution, most of the adjustments people are making and are more focused on everyday amenities such as cars, lightbulbs. I think that in order to address climate change, bigger-picture thinking is really essential, hence why I appreciate this study so much.