{"id":11701,"date":"2019-08-06T13:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T07:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aqi.in\/blog\/fight-climate-change\/"},"modified":"2019-08-06T13:00:28","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T07:30:28","slug":"fight-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aqi.in\/blog\/en-gb\/fight-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Greta Thunberg Gave Up Travelling by Flights to Fight Climate Change. Would You Too?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As much as the title sounds unreasonable, however, it is an actual truth. There are various means to fight climate change. One of the reasons could possibly be to totally abandon the idea of traveling by flights. As per recent reports, Air Travel is a huge contributor to climate change<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Did you know?<\/span><\/p>\n

The engines of an airplane work by burning fossil fuel (combustion). This produces carbon dioxide and water vapor. Other major emissions include lead, nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen oxide (NO2) which together are called NOx, sulfur oxides (SO2), and soot. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Recently VOX published an article that shared a story with a powerful message by a young woman<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, named Maja Ros\u00e9n (founder of Swedish No-flight Campaign).<\/span><\/p>\n

Read below:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It was 2007, during a trip to visit her sister in Norway\u2019s pristine\u00a0Lofoten Islands, when Maja Ros\u00e9n had an unsettling thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

As she took in the breathtaking archipelago north of the Arctic Circle<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that is dotted with mountains, carved with fjords, and circled by sea eagles, she remembered she was looking at one of the\u00a0fastest-warming\u00a0regions of the planet.<\/span><\/p>\n

And she realized that how she got there was part of the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"fight<\/p>\n

She\u2019d carpooled with friends to Oslo from her home in Gothenburg, Sweden. The final leg was a short boat ride to the islands. And in between was a 500-mile flight from Oslo to Bod\u00f8.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the distance, short flights produce a larger amount of greenhouse gas emissions<\/strong><\/span><\/a> per passenger compared to longer routes. That fact wasn\u2019t something that struck her on her previous jaunts like her flights to the United Kingdom to visit friends.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But upon basking in the fragile and sublime wonders of Lofoten, Ros\u00e9n began to consider how her own actions might be threatening the region. The contradiction between her admiration for the scenery and her pollution<\/strong><\/span><\/a> from getting there, she decided, was too much to bear.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt so wrong that my flight there was contributing to destroying that place,\u201d Ros\u00e9n, now 38, said. Soon after, she drastically curbed her flying, but in 2008, she concluded it wasn\u2019t enough. \u201cThat\u2019s when I decided not to fly again, and I have not regretted that decision,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Greta Thunberg too gave up traveling by flights to fight climate change.<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

16-year-old, Swedish, environmental activist, Greta Thunberg is is making promising efforts to fight climate change in her own little ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"fight<\/p>\n

Young Ms. Thunberg<\/strong><\/span><\/a> gained recognition \u2013 when she went on a school strike to protest against the government\u2019s inaction on climate change. Which instantly sparked a series of the worldwide demonstration by many young people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right after becoming a global celebrity, she set an example by traveling to events around Europe mainly by train. Recently, to attend the United Nations Climate Action Summit<\/strong><\/span><\/a> in New York, she accepted to ride on a sailboat, disowning traveling by flights altogether.<\/span><\/p>\n

A lot of Countries are coming up with ways to fight climate change:<\/span><\/h3>\n

Not just Sweden, but other countries such as Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, are curbing their air travel if not giving it up outright.<\/span><\/p>\n

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However, the\u00a0growing global alarm<\/strong><\/span><\/a> about the environmental impacts of aviation comes as air travel continues to rise and airlines report\u00a0record demand\u00a0for flights. Our global economy is tightly interwoven with aviation as it carries goods and facilitates commerce.\u00a0Leisure flights are also increasing, and growing demand for services like two-day and overnight shipping has led some companies like\u00a0Amazon\u00a0to invest more in cargo aircraft.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

How does Air Travel contribute to climate change?<\/span><\/h3>\n

The\u00a0environmental impact of aviation\u00a0occurs because\u00a0aircraft engines\u00a0emit heat,\u00a0noise, particulates, and gases which contribute to\u00a0climate change and\u00a0global dimming.\u00a0Airplanes emit particles and gases such as\u00a0carbon dioxide\u00a0<\/span>(CO<\/span>2), water vapor,\u00a0hydrocarbons,\u00a0carbon monoxide,\u00a0nitrogen oxides,\u00a0sulfur oxides,\u00a0lead, and\u00a0black carbon\u00a0which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Globally, about 8.3 million people fly daily (three billion occupied seats per year).\u00a0In attempting to aggregate and quantify the total climate impact of aircraft emissions the\u00a0Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(IPCC) has estimated that aviation’s total climate impact is some two to four times that of its direct CO2<\/sub>\u00a0emissions alone (excluding the potential impact of cirrus cloud enhancement).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, should you travel by flight, dear?<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts,\u201d wrote Mark Twain in\u00a0The Innocents Abroad<\/em>. \u201cBroad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things can not be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one\u2019s lifetime.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n