Land vehicles’ contribution to degrading air quality and climate change has been the talk of the town. However, a study led by a team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that “aviation emissions are an increasingly significant contributor to anthropogenic climate change”.
Upon reaching cruise altitude, aeroplanes spew out steady streams of oxides into the atmosphere. The suspended oxides, mostly nitrogen, linger long enough to spark new chemical reactions with atmospheric oxygen, producing ozone and fine particulate matter. Such highly reactive and toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx) are known to cause asthma, decreased lung function and cardiovascular disorders.
“When you consider the full flight, which includes emissions from take-off, cruise and landing, aircraft emissions are also responsible for around 16,000 premature deaths a year from impaired air quality,” says Dr Sebastian Eastham, a lead research scientist at the MIT Laboratory for...