> I spent quite some time in South-East Asia
> I come home, diligently recycling my trash
Not saying you shouldn't recycle your trash, but your flights are much more impactful for the environment than your trash.
Having said that, I agree with aircraft pollution. And this indeed implies that I recycling is silly compared to other things I do. So this only fuels the apathy I'm starting to feel towards this whole thing.
Plastic in the oceans, now that’s a mess.
(I too feel conflicted about plane travel and it's long term impact.)
According to the above article, one would prefer that.
> The trend has continued so that in 2010, flying burned just 2,691 BTU per passenger mile—an improvement of 74 percent since 1970. That was 43 percent better than driving the average car, which gets about 21.5 miles per gallon (4,218 BTU per passenger mile)
By emitting that large amount of co2, you are disrupting the ocean co2 flux, reducing o2 available and causing acidification. The warming caused by the thermal capacity of the co2 melts the polar ice , cooling the oceans and reducing their salinity. Plastic is relatively a small problem.
Air travel research has shown biofuels are production ready, but it’s not cost competitive yet, although that’s a market failure through the externalization of emission costs.
The book also remarks upon how a (theoretical) revival of ocean liners would actually be worse.