All of you have calculated your emissions and you have surely discovered the unexpectedly high impact of some of your behaviors (eating meat, flying to a sunny destination, etc.) on your total footprints.
Are there any behaviors that you are really willing to change or to improve for the sake of the environment? What challenges do you encounter or think you will encounter while trying to change these things? What help, support, and insights from others would make your life easier with these new behaviors?
Let's discuss these issues and make our pledges here!
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The Impact of Flights on the Environment
Just a simple one way flight can have a detrimental impact on the environment. A flight from London to New York generates about 986 kg of CO2 per passenger, which is more carbon than the average person emits per year in 56 countries! And these rates are only increasing as the airline industry is growing. So does this mean that we should travel less? Not at all? Unfortunately the most effective and straightforward way to tackle this issue is to simply reduce our travel and flights per year. But there are some other options such as buying carbon offsets. Carbon offsets are investments in developments that are combating carbon emissions, such as projects that plant trees or the implement of solar panels in communities. Though carbon offsetting is a good first step towards reducing your carbon emissions, it isn’t 100% effective because you are most likely emitting more carbon than you are offsetting. If you think about it, you're still emitting that carbon and will still be in our atmosphere, you are merely helping to reduce carbon in a different area to try and balance the carbon you emitted. In my opinion the best solution is to try and reduce your travel as much as possible, but if you are going on a trip, maybe look into some carbon offsets.
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment … -in-a-year