The real cause of global warming is airplane exhaust. Agree?

Question

Why keep blaming cars? Ever look at all the flights done in a single day in those magazines on the airplane? Give me a break. And individuals recycle way more than offices. Yet no one holds offices accountable for all their garbage bags (half full) and recyclables not being recycled.

Answer 1

One airplane does emit a lot. But, compared to cars there are so many fewer airplanes that, in total, they put out much less than cars.

Making a plane that doesn't run on fossil fuel is more of a problem too. So we're lucky they're not a big problem.

Answer 2

We aren't even talking about the real issue behind global warming, which is GLOBAL POLLUTION. Over a million people a year die in Asia from air pollution. Many more millions, perhaps billions, all over the world are made sick from pollutants in our atmosphere, water, soil and food.

It isn't one thing that's the problem, such as airplane exhaust, but the combination of all the pollutants put into the atmosphere.

If we were to remove airplane exhaust the global warming problem would get WORSE rather than better. This is evidenced by the fact that when planes were grounded after 9-11 happened the temperature increased. All of those pollutants are PREVENTING SUNLIGHT from reaching the ground.

The problem with GLOBAL POLLUTION is what we need to focus on in my opinion. When we do, we will find that it is directly related to our economic system which externalizes costs and internalizes profits, essentially rewarding those who pollute the most in order to keep the cost of products and services competitive.

The economic system is causing global pollution, global warming, poverty, war, terrorism and a host of other evils in our world.

We need a new economic system, one which rewards right behavior and punishes wrong behavior. And we need it globally. Everything is global now.

Consume less and share more. Work less and help more.
Recycle, re-use, and reduce consumption.

See: http://freecycle.org for a handle on where this can go.

Steve Moyer
http://stevemoyer.us

Answer 3

There is no one cause for global warming, anything that burns fuel is contributing. Airplanes may well have an extra effect since they deposit their combustion products high in the atmosphere. After 9/11 when all air traffic was grounded in the US there were some interesting observations made. It seems that the water vapor that forms contrails can change the weather, essentially seeding cloud formation.

However, there are many more cars and trucks and houses and everything else using fuel on the ground which in the long term are adding most of the carbon dioxide.

Answer 4

In 2006 aeroplanes contributes 4.6% of the total greenhouse gas emissions causes by man - a twofold increase over the previous 20 years and expected to double again within the next 30 years.

The total contribution from airplanes is quite small compared to motor vehicles, that's because there are so many more vehicles than planes. 800 million of them worldwide.

All things accounted for then domestic emissions far outweigh office emissions. I don't have specific figures otherwise I'd let you know. Again it's largely due to numbers - everybody lives in a house but only some people work in an office. Offices are only used for a few hours a day and not every day of the week. Typically a person who works in an office spends just under a quarter of their time there.

Answer 5

It's not the "real" cause. It's a contributing cause but not the most important one.

There was a study in the US during the few days after 9/11 when all the flights were grounded, to see if airplane exhaust had any measurable effect in temperature. IIRC the result was that without all the flights the average temperature in the US rose about 1-2 degrees F for the few days after 9/11. The reason was that all the plane exhaust in the air is blocking the sunlight that reaches the ground and without it the sun is warming up the earth faster than when planes fly all day long.

This result in no way reverses what we know about the human generated factors that contribute to global warming. What it shows is that global climate is a very complex system and we can't expect one single action to have a definite result without upsetting the climate balance that the planet has achieved after millions of years of natural evolution.

We've destroyed this natural cycle in only a few years of the industrial age and the social systems we've built based on resource waste and environmental damage.

It is appalling that people are still refusing to admit to well established and documented facts about the damage we've been doing to the planet in the last 150 years. They are all followers of a certain political ideology (Conservatives in the US) who is continuing to be friendly to the financial interests of environmental abusers and their immediate monetary profit from destroying natural resources, even with so much available information about the harmful effects of pollution and harmful emissions our societies are generating.

None of the naysayers can explain what happens to the several billions of tons of green house gases that we're putting out every year for several decades. They are just saying that they don't "believe" (religious thought process) it's not a problem because they can't see living things dying right outside their doorstep but none of them can give a scientifically accepted explanation of what happens to all the toxic garbage we've been dumping on the environment for decades.

Such sort sightedness is the "real" cause of global warming - the refusal to admit to facts and the preference of so many people to be a mindless followers of a political agenda.

As far as offices and places of work, I haven't seen any studies on this but the level of waste that's going on in offices (in general) must be substantially higher than in average homes.

I read somewhere that the wasteful habit of Americans of keeping the refrigerator door open for several minutes while they casually decide what to have for dinner takes up the energy output of 2 or 3 power plants every year. The average energy and resource waste in an office must be several times higher than that even if offices are open 8-10 hours a day.

Employees don't care because they don't pay the bills and the owners often can't control the level of waste and many times don't even bother because energy costs are still relatively low and it's still very cheap to waste so everyone does it and there's no financial incentive to stop wasting resources and energy.

Finally, the real cause of global warming is our wasteful attitudes (the US has 5% of the world population and is putting out more than half of all pollution on the planet) and the complacency and support of environmental abusers by political parties who have a financial interest in waste and pollution and irreversible environmental destruction.

Answer 6

i don't know, yet i know this: even as Al Gore replaced into operating for vice chairman in 1992, he insisted over and once more advantageous that the first actual element he could do could be to gather a team of experts from each and every field (scientists, industrialists, and so on.) to artwork on coming up new selection means resources. IN 8 YEARS, HE DID no longer something OF the style. Al Gore's roots are in massive oil, and he's a globalist, a hideous blend! Why did they kill the electric powered automobile? How can massive oil make funds off of an electric powered automobile?? The "Earth structure" and "agenda 21" are literally not about the ecosystem, they are all about administration, highly via global bankers, over the completed planet.

Answer 7

We are all being brain-washed. The planet goes through temperature cycles - fact. The change in CO2 levels in the atmosphere is tiny as a proportion of the atmosphere - fact. The very vocal groups pushing the whole "we are responsible" ideas cannot prove the link between CO2 levels and climate change.
Don't get me wrong, I believe we shouold be careful about all the rubbish we produce (solids, liquids and gases) but come on this planet is huge and I can't believe that man is yet powerful enough to cause the whole climate system to change. I think some of the funds currently being spent on carbon reduction should instead be spent in looking at what we are going to do when the temperature does rise as I'm afraid it is inevitable!

Answer 8

There are many different causes of global warming, however you cannot blame it all on airplanes and buisness offices. Not only are there more cars than an airplanes. Airplanes also carry more people than cars. So the idea of airplanes would be more efficient than having all the people that would have been aboard drive their own vehicles.

Answer 9

To be quite honest with you all, everything to do with cars, planes, fridges, yes ok does cause problems, but in my opinion i think a lot of all this hassle with global warming is'nt just put down to that.
It 's also down to explosions..
I know it might sound daft, but many millions of years ago before humans were around, an asteroid hit the earth, and put it of it's axis, the seasons were out of sync, then years and years later another one hit again and put the earth back onto it's axis and the seasons settled down to as we know them today.
Now with the invention of dynamite, i personally think that with all these explosions, at war, clearing out coal from mines, flattening buildings, even down to film sets using explosions, anything like that, is slowly putting the earth back off it's true axis and the seasons are again being affected.

After all how many insects have you seen out that should'nt be out, trees and flowers begining to grow leaves and flowers when they should still be asleep, snow arriving mid way through the start of the new year , not in December when i used to know it as a child.

As far as i am concerned man is doing more damage through greed and speed to become wealthy. Using dynamite to remove things as quick as possible so they can live in luxury for a bit..
Lets face it, at the end of the day we will all end up feeding mother nature when we die, because nothing last forever does it.

We should enjoy it while we can and stop the bombing, and war, and explosions and let earth settle down to a relaxed life.
IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN.

Answer 10

The biggest single thing you can do to help stop global warming is not to stop flying, or driving, or even to insulate your house better, or eat locally-grown food (although of course you should do as much as possible!) - it is to become vegan!

People often focus only on carbon dioxide, but methane and nitrous oxide are actually worse greenhouse gases, gram for gram (but there is less of them than CO2). When these gases are taken into account as well, you can see that animal farming is the single biggest cause of global warming.

The emissions from the animals themselves, their manure, and the combustion of fossil fuels to grow and transport their feed and carcasses all contribute greatly to the current problem. This is to say nothing of the numerous other environmental, social, and health benefits of stopping consuming animal products.

Here is a useful article to start with:
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0120-20.htm

Answer 11

I can not answer this about airplane exhaust but here are some facts - According to AOPA, the USA alone has 22 million flights per year or 60,000+ per day. It is estimated worldwide the figure is 120,000-180,000 flights per day. These are only estimate no one knows for sure but an average fuel usage of 1150-1200 gallons per hour ofr an average passenger plane then its a lot of exchaust gas.

Make what you will of these statisics