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by eloff 2725 days ago
Nonsense. It's less than 1% of our carbon emissions iirc. In theory we could convert that over to biofuels and/or hydrocarbons produced using CO2 from the atmosphere, at which point it would be carbon neutral. It may be the only reasonable way to get the energy density we need for practical air travel in the near term.
1 comments
Retric 2725 days ago
“The global aviation industry produces around 2% of all human-induced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Aviation is responsible for 12% of CO2 emissions from all transports sources, compared to 74% from road transport.”

But that’s with current aircraft supper sonic is less efficient and enables longer flights having a very outsized impact for minimal gain. You can both sleep and use high speed internet from modern jets, going 2-3x as fast adds little productivity.

On top of that emerging markets are just as happy to start flying as start driving which is pushing up flying’s impact every year.

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loeg 2725 days ago
> You can both sleep and use high speed internet from modern jets

Speak for yourself — I can't sleep on planes. Nor is airplane internet anything close to high speed by any standard. It's expensive as hell and doesn't exist over oceans. At the same ticket price, for long-haul international, I'd greatly prefer an economy-sized seat in a 2.5x shorter flight to a biz-class seat in a traditional flight.

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Retric 2725 days ago
The cost of these things are well into first class territory* which I find much easier to sleep in vs business class. Turbulence can still occasionally be a thing, but it’s less frequent on long haul flights because they have more options.

As to internet over the ocean, Gogo has quality high speed internet via satellite. If you have not flown on one of these flights or a competent competitor you will notice a real difference.

*At least until a large number of aircraft are in service. Airlines make the most money per square foot with business class, but first class is still a critical revenue stream. Free up first class space via these and run fewer large aircraft with a higher percentage of business class is going to be most efficient. This also means you end up with either fewer economy seats or more expensive ones as currently first class and business class subsidizes economy.

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