CO2 Outputs 2007-2009 Part Two:Flying

OK- In part one, I said I hadn’t calculated my flying CO2 footprints for 2007-2008-2009. Now I have… and yikes!

All those 2009 airplane trips to the San Francisco Bay Area to attend to an ill and dying parent add up in CO2 emissions.

So, here are the raw numbers:

2007 Airtravel:           14,581 miles     3755 lbs CO2
2008 Airtravel:              4740 miles     2245 lbs CO2
2009 Airtravel:           14,799 miles     6496 lbs CO2

You’ll notice that the miles traveled in 2007 and 2009 are only 218 miles different, but that the CO2 emitted is roughly half. Why? Because in 2007,  nine thousand seven hundred of the 14,485 miles were from a one-shot, round trip to Copenhagen, Denmark as opposed to numerous short-hop trips to the Bay Area to take care of my Dad in 2009. Long-haul jet travel emits less CO2 than short hops, as the bulk of the tailpipe emissions occur at take off and landing.

2008 represents a more typical flying year for me- three or four short hops to the Bay Area and maybe one vacation trip somewhere in the continental US, whereas the 2007 Europe Trip and the 2009 year-of-Dad-dying, with lots of miles and/or many trips (14 air trips in 2009 alone… and folks wonder why I am burnt out)

I can’t change the trips past nor change the fact that my mother is still in the Bay Area. But I can root, root, root for more fuel- efficient planes, the building of high-speed rail (oh, but that we were like Europe and Japan!) I can opt to drive to CA at least once this year , lieu of flying,  in my fuel-efficient Honda Civic instead of taking the plane, and lastly, buy carbon off-sets, as I have done, to try and make up the difference.

Some websites I used to make my calculations:

www.terrapass.com
www.treehugger.com

(Like I said, yikes!)