A 10-year prediction made by Bethan Owen and her colleagues from the UK’s CATE (Center for Air Traffic and the Environment) says that aircraft emissions will become the a significant source of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and will double or triple by 2050.
60 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft are not even included in the Kyoto protocol, with global air traffic contributing to between 2 and 3 percent of CO2 emissions.
“Even though there have been significant improvements in fuel efficiency through aircraft technology and operational management, this has been outweighed by the increase in air traffic,” the prediction states.
The forecast gets even worse, because computer simulations say that carbon dioxide levels will increase by up to seven times the current levels in the next 90 years (if we don’t change the source of energy, of course, which is something I can’t imagine).
