The hidden toll of aviation: How air travel contributes to climate change

All three realms that humans inhabit—land, sea, and sky—have been thoroughly polluted. This pollution is causing us to reconsider our very existence.

- CAPTAIN INDIRA VASHISHTA

One realm that is often overlooked, however, is aerosol pollution from jet aircraft. Unlike pollution at ground level, which we share right across the world, the part of our atmosphere that rises right up over our borders remains, for the most part, pristine. Jet engines are cleaner and more efficient than they were, say, a couple of decades ago. Yet the sheer volume of air traffic makes aircraft a significant source of aerosol pollution.

Tens of thousands of tons of greenhouse gases are contributed to the atmosphere by airplanes, the major ones being carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Aircraft emissions are a major source of nitrogen oxides in the environment. Unlike most power plants, which exhaust emissions at ground level, airplanes release their pollutants at high altitudes, where their effects are magnified.

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