An article from www.unison.ie this morning......I think this highlights the smallish and relatively simple sacrifices that we can make that will help in our efforts to improve and maintain the environment we are lucky to live in!
"RESTRICTING the number of night-time aircraft flights could help to fight global warming as well as make life easier for people living near airports.
A study has shown that the condensation trails, or 'contrails', left by aircraft engines' exhausts can exacerbate global warming more when they are produced at night than during the day.
The scientists behind the study, which was published in the journal Nature, said the results suggested that rescheduling flights for the daytime could help to minimise the impact of aviation on climate change. The scientists at Reading University used computer models of contrail data to show that, even though only one in four flights over Britain occurred at night, the night-time flights were responsible for about 60pc of the climate warming associated with the contrails.
The study was conducted at a site in southeast England. (©Independent News Service)
Steve Connor"
One slight problem....
ReplyDeleteIf we're talking about air travel we're not confined to our ovn localiye/postcode. You have to think bigger ie globally. It's always day-time somewhere and night-time somwhere else. If i want to fly to my neighbour's house I might be able to schedule it for night time, but if I travel accross 1/2 the face of the planet, chances are some of my journey will be in daylight and some at night.
Indeed, but it's just an example of something that can be done. I agree it is difficult especially on transcontinental flights! Even considering restricting night flights from London to Dublin would be difficult I'd imagine. But the question is whether we either change our habits or change the planet...!
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