Cascadia Scorecard News
December 2004

In recent years, much attention has been given to the role of automobile emissions in climate change. But air travel-which has been rebounding since 9/11-is equally damaging to the climate, per mile of travel. Flight is one of the most fuel-guzzling forms of passenger transportation. Airplanes' fuel use (and resulting emissions of carbon dioxide), per passenger and per mile, is almost as heavy as driving alone (see chart).

Beyond their emissions of carbon dioxide, aircraft release other gases that have disproportionate but short-term effects on our planet's climate. And data suggest that northwesterners fly more passenger miles per capita than residents of most other states.

But there are solutions:

• Traveling by other means--especially for shorter trips-is a better choice for the climate.

• When you do fly, you can offset your climate impacts by paying for pollution reductions elsewhere:

• Purchase "Green Tags" from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. Green Tags support the production of renewable energy in 15 Western states. Click here to help you calculate your CO2 emissions from air travel and learn about Green Tags.


• Offset your CO2 emissions when you book your flight through the Oregon company, Travel Cool, which uses the donation to fund carbon offest projects such as replacing oil-burning boilers in Portland's public schools.


• The Northwest can also shift policies to support other forms of travel. One promising strategy is to tax fuel while reducing taxes on paychecks, thus encouraging conservation and full employment at the same time. Read more about energy solutions.

More facts on air travel:

• Flight one is one of the most fuel-guzzling forms of passenger transportation. Airlines compensate for their high fuel bills by packing passengers into their aircraft, but, per mile, powering a jet uses almost as much energy, and emits almost as much climate-changing carbon dioxide, as each passenger would use driving alone in an average car.
  
  
• Air travel also has a disproportionate short-term effect on climate: Carbon dioxide has the same effects on the climate no matter when or where it is injected into the atmosphere. But other aircraft emissions-such as nitrogen oxides-have potent, climate-changing effects because of the elevation at which they are released. Over the short term, they more than double the effects of the CO2 alone. Over time, these other pollutants disappear, but the carbon dioxide remains aloft capturing heat for decades.
  
  
• These short-term climate-altering effects of air travel are concentrated, along with the residents of affluent nations, in the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere, which includes the Pacific Northwest.
  
  
• Northwesterners fly more: Washington trails only Alaska and Hawaii in passenger miles of air travel per capita, and Oregon is sixth in the nation. Idaho trails not far behind at seventeenth. In addition, the region's location on the Pacific Rim boosts the number of aircraft, and travelers, that pass through Cascadia's airports. Greater Seattle, for example, has more departures each year than larger cities such as Boston and Philadelphia. In the Pacific Northwest overall, airplanes speed down the runway toward take-off an estimated half million times each year.