Superhero?
It’s a bird, it’s a plane…it’s Superman! No…wait; it’s definitely just a plane. In fact, it doesn’t look like even Superman can save the world from its latest evildoer: the red-eye flight.
According to a recent BBC report, nighttime airplane flights contribute more to global warming than their daytime counterparts. During the day, the vapor trail left by an airplane acts as both a blanket — trapping heat in the earth’s atmosphere, and a mirror — reflecting light from the sun back into space, reducing the earth’s heat. In this way, the airplane’s contrail typically comes close to balancing the effects of its heating and cooling to minimize the overall effect on the earth.
However, when the sun is no longer shining, a plane’s vapor trail will continue to trap heat without nullifying its effects by preventing other heat from entering the atmosphere; the result is that planetary villain known as global warming.
Additionally, because contrails are more likely to form during colder weather, summer flights are better for the environment than winter flights. With air travel looking to grow rapidly in the coming years, Superman will have his hands tied. Let’s just hope he chooses to fight off the evils of global warming and fly during the day.
Reader Comments