How Aviation Impacts Climate Change

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Discussion
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Aviation forms a crucial part of the global economy by carrying people and goods between all countries. As demand increases, particularly in the developing globe, the aviation industry is anticipated to expand in the ensuing decades. Unfortunately, both in the air and on the ground, aviation operations rely significantly on fossil fuels, which release combustion byproducts that affect climate change and regional and global air quality. Overall, aviation influences climate change in various ways, including causing air pollution from the combustion of fuels and through aviation cloudiness.

Discussion

Aviation has led to air pollution in the environment in many ways. The main gaseous emission from aircraft is carbon dioxide (CO2). However, planes emit other greenhouse gases besides CO2 that can cause pollution. In addition to sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons, black carbon or soot is an aerosol that is directly released (Grewe et al., 2021). The produced species are transported through the atmosphere and affect many different atmospheric processes, such as the development of ozone and methane depletion. The biggest greenhouse gas, CO2, has the same influence regardless of height; hence there is no additional effect. Emissions like water vapor and nitrogen oxide may have a greater impact at higher elevations. There is a strong likelihood that Nitrous gases have a warming effect as a net result (Overton, 2022). Soot, sulfates, and hydrocarbons are among the particles. Sulfates produce a slight cooling effect by reflecting the sun’s rays. When soot absorbs heat, these dark particles easily transform into the nuclei of ice crystals. Generally, it is crucial to understand that most other emitters release non-CO2 gasses, necessitating a multiplier to estimate their overall contribution to climate change.

Aviation cloudiness has led to a very serious effect on the environment. Aircraft contrails can stay in the sky under the right circumstances, forming contrail cirrus ice clouds that can absorb heat inside the Earth’s atmosphere (EurekAlert, 2019). Contrails arise when water vapor emissions combine with background or generated aerosol. Persistent contrails develop at low temperatures and high ambient humidity and increase cloudiness. A measurement of the earth’s radiation budget imbalance brought on by changes in the quantities of gases and aerosols or cloudiness is known as radiative forcing (EurekAlert, 2019). The magnitude of the climate impact increases with the size of this radiative forcing. The major effects of contrail cirrus are warming the upper atmosphere at air traffic levels and altering the natural cloudiness. They may contribute to climate change if they persist in the atmosphere and produce cirrus clouds under certain atmospheric conditions. Generally, this causes an imbalance in the earth’s radiation budget, which warms the globe. When establishing carbon trading systems, it is crucial to be aware of the major effects that non-CO2 emissions, like contrail cirrus, have on the climate.

Conclusion

In brief, aviation has various effects on climate change, including air pollution from fuel burning and aviation cloudiness which causes global warming. Cleaner aircraft emissions would resolve part of the issue mentioned since aviation’s carbon footprint alone does not accurately reflect its contribution to global warming. Therefore, other approaches like aircraft engine certification criteria are required to handle the release of CO2 and non-CO2 gases. Furthermore, limiting the number of soot particles released by jet engines can lower the number of ice particles in contrails, reducing the impact of contrail cirrus on the climate.

References

EurekAlert. (2019). Climate impact of clouds made from airplane contrails may triple by 2050. Web.

Grewe, V., Gangoli Rao, A., Grönstedt, T., Xisto, C., Linke, F., Melkert, J., Middel, J., Ohlenforst, B., Blakey, S., Christie, S., Matthes, S., & Dahlmann, K. (2021). Evaluating the climate impact of aviation emission scenarios towards the Paris Agreement including COVID-19 effects. Nature Communications, 12(1). Web.

Overton, J. (2022). Issue brief | The growth in greenhouse gas emissions from commercial aviation (2019, revised 2022). Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI). Web.

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How Aviation Impacts Climate Change

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