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Dear EarthTalk: Do airplanes contribute significantly to air pollution? - Neil Gladstone, New York, NY
 Airplanes
do indeed create a great amount of air pollution. According
to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a nonprofit
environmental group, “airport air pollution is similar
in scope to that generated by local power plants, incinerators
and refineries, yet is exempt from rules other industrial
polluters must follow.” Major airports, says NRDC, rank
among the top 10 industrial air polluters in cities such as
Los Angeles, Washington and Chicago. The hundreds of thousands
of airplanes taking off, landing, taxiing and idling each
day across the country emit contaminants into the air and
ground which have been linked to a wide range of human health
problems, including asthma and cancer.
Beyond local environmental effects, air travel is contributing
significantly to global warming. A 1999 report by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that aircraft are responsible
for 3.5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide; this
could increase to 10 percent by 2050 as the popularity of
air travel rises. Meanwhile, contrails-those vapor condensation
trails you see overhead that are formed when airplanes fly
at high altitudes through extremely cold air-could be contributing
to global warming as they turn into high thin cirrus clouds
and trap heat from incoming sunlight within the atmosphere.
A recent agreement to cut 37 daily peak-hour arrivals at
America's busiest airport, Chicago's O'Hare, should help to
not only ease congestion and reduce delays but also to improve
local air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately,
because of the increasing popularity of air travel, 60 of
the 100 largest U.S. airports are proposing building more
runways, thus expanding rather than reducing activity.
Because airplanes are considered part of interstate commerce,
they are not subject to local and state pollution laws. Furthermore,
the Federal Aviation Administration has the potentially conflicting
responsibilities of monitoring pollution while promoting air
travel. In lieu of government regulation to curb airplane
emissions, though, economics sometimes prevail. In the wake
of 9/11, consumers have been skittish about air travel, while
fuel prices have risen to unprecedented levels. Ailing airlines
are left with no choice but to scale back on flights as well
as on engine idling, in turn benefiting the environment. Analysts
estimate that Delta Air Lines' voluntary reduction of engine
idling, for instance, has cut ground-level emissions from
its planes by as much as 40 percent.
Meanwhile, NRDC promotes taxes on jet fuel as a way to encourage
airlines to increase their efficiency, and encourages consumers
to opt for alternative modes of transportation, such as high-speed
rail when available, especially for shorter distances. “Consumers
can also help,” says the group, “by demanding that
airports be subject to the same rigorous standards and reporting
requirements as their industrial neighbors.”
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