The Obama administration’s recent announcement that the EPA will begin crafting regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes started a whole new flurry of complaints – and no doubt lobbying efforts – about carbon concerns and climate change.
One first reaction we’re already hearing is that it is about time we began to look at the pollution spewed from our flying machines.
But another reaction is the sobering realization that airplane emissions make up just 0.5 percent of global human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, according to researchers.
That’s sobering not because it indicates we shouldn’t bother with lowering it: Every little bit counts. But it’s sobering since it is an indicator of how much more pollution comes from us just going about our everyday lives. Just being ordinary people on the planet.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report, the burning of coal, natural gas and oil for electricity and heat is the big gorilla in the room, throwing into the atmosphere 26 percent of the carbon that continues to collect and choke our planet, making our future dicey.