Experts urge people not to travel by plane in Europe. Given the modest distances between the main destinations, it would be advisable to rely on more sustainable means.
Experts advise against traveling by air in Europe, even if there is no threat to safety, or at least as it is commonly understood. Engineer Linda Christensen, an emeritus researcher at the Department of Management of the Technical University of Denmark, has raised this issue. She specializes in long-distance transport and travel.
In particular, if she has to travel within European borders she does so strictly by train, preferring air flights only for very long distances, for example from Denmark to the United States.
This choice derives precisely from the awareness of the enormous responsibility of air traffic on environmental pollution, with the related consequences at a climate level. For this reason, like many other experts, he advises against traveling by plane in Europe. Here because.
Traveling by air in Europe, the danger of pollution
The plane, like many other means of transport, pollutes the environment and should therefore be used with awareness. The assessment of the environmental impact caused by transport, however, cannot be resolved in such a simplistic way. There are many variables to consider and go well beyond the pollution produced by the individual vehicle. To cite one of the best-known examples, it is preferable to use public transport instead of cars because the former allows the movement of many more people.
Generally speaking, however, it can be stated that train travel is the most ecological choice, on the contrary, flying is on average the least sustainable means of transport, with greenhouse gas emissions decidedly high. In this case, however, we are talking about travel within Europe, so the discussion must be limited within these borders.
There are, in fact, two specific reasons why experts particularly condemn air mobility in this territory. First of all, there is a real abuse of flights, which occurs every day in large quantities and often in an unjustified way concerning time requirements. Secondly, although this point links to the previous one, the distances between European capitals are modest enough to limit flights.
Precisely the brevity of the flights emphasizes another important issue, namely the concentration of the most important and polluting phases of the flight (take-off and landing) in reduced distances, with a waste of energy not indifferent. This is not only due to the relative proximity between the European destinations of greatest interest but also to the fact that the majority of Europeans travel by plane to these destinations, rather than to more distant destinations.
But how much do planes pollute in Europe?
Expert Linda Christiansen focused on her field of expertise, which is air transport in Denmark. In particular, it noted that in the vast majority of cases, planes are used to reach destinations on European territory, which are not too inconvenient to reach with other means of transport.
Furthermore, according to the researcher, the same trend is shared by other European travelers. On the contrary, by plane longer journeys should be preferred which, in proportion, allows the environmental impact to be drastically reduced. In any case, more sustainable means of transport, such as the diesel train, would be preferable.
To have objective parameters, let’s now compare the CO2 production of the most used means of transport for each kilometer traveled. This is, obviously, an average, which can be useful for understanding this evaluation.
- Airplane: 140 grams of CO2 per kilometre.
- Car: 118 grams of CO2 per kilometre.
- Truck: 158 grams of CO2 per kilometre.
- Train: 44 grams of CO2 per kilometre.
Despite this, at an urban level, the main culprits of environmental pollution remain cars and mopeds, which are widely - and often improperly - used. This can be seen in particular from the 2023 European report, in which however the impact of rail transport is significantly lower than all other means.
Original article published on Money.it Italy 2024-07-03 20:41:58. Original title: Gli esperti avvertono: "Non viaggiate in aereo in Europa, ecco perché"
