Introduction: Prepare doors for takeoff

As part of a university module I am taking called Global Environmental Change (which coincidentally has the same code as this flight of discovery I am about to embark on, GEOG3057), I aim to explore the issues surrounding air travel and the impacts it has on the environment. To me, commercial aviation is one of our greatest achievements as a humankind. It involves people from all over the world coming, working, talking, arguing, collaborating, engineering and building things together. It also involves flying through the sky, which is quite neat. 

Currently the aviation sector is responsible for 2% of global annual CO₂ emissions. This may seem insignificant in relation to the  2.2 billion people that gain from flying and the 32 million jobs the aviation industry provides, but it's actually quite a lot of  CO₂. In 2010 for example, aviation produced 760 million tonnes of it (and I feel guilty about having to work in the library, with the lights on when there's plenty of sunlight coming through the windows!).

Global air travel is showing no signs of slowing down despite increasing concern for the impact it is having on the environment, in particular on the atmosphere. Our reliance on air travel in the world today as a means of transporting goods and people for business or leisure in a timely fashion means that wherever possible, infrastructure will always be built to accommodate its growth. No better is this demonstrated than in China, where 82 new airports are being planned to be built by 2015 as outlined in the country's most recent 5 year plan.  

It is estimated that passenger air travel will grow at an annual rate of 5% from 1990 to 2015 with associated annual CO2 emission increases of 2-3%, and this is despite strict regulation and more environmentally friendly aircraft. And that is just looking at CO₂! Most of the growth in aviation will come from outside the US and EU considering that together they are currently responsible for 48% of CO₂ emissions from flights originating within them. 

Its a shame we can't all take the swanky AGV train to Australia

Over the next few months, I hope to address the environmental concerns associated with  aviation. I’m interested in what I will discover in light of the predicted growth of the aviation sector and what this may equate to, perhaps in my lifetime concerning the future of air travel.