I just figured out my Carbon Dioxide footprint and I'm way high in transportation. We took one short trip by airplane and that increased my Carbon footprint by a lot.

To my surprise, transportation was one of my highest Carbon footprint trail, too.  It was almost twice the normal amount. I took six flights all under ten hours each over the past year, and when I put it into the carbon footprint tracker, my score went up incredibly. In an article called, “Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Aircraft?”, the author wrote, “ From 1990 to 2010, global aircraft carbon dioxide emissions grew about 40 percent. If global aviation were a country, it would rank as the seventh largest carbon dioxide emitter, and U.S. aircraft emissions are 29 percent of all global aircraft emissions.” Apparently, aircraft releases more carbon dioxide than anything else, really. Therefore, even one trip by plane increases the amount of CO2 released drastically. It is kind of like the P.H or Richter scale, a small change makes a big difference.
In the long run, I guess the only way to bring down our carbon footprint by traveling is to slow down our number  of flights we take. It would also help to walk to places more often than to drive or take a bus everywhere. It would benefit the Earth’s atmosphere much more than some think it would.

Caitlyn, The same thing happened to me. I took four flights and it boosted my carbon footprint from almost nothing to going way over average. It was very surprising to think about how much flying effects the environment. I want to be more considerate and thoughtful with my flying future.