There's a bunch of other interesting flight path optimization work going on at <a href="https://contrails.org/" rel="nofollow">https://contrails.org/.
It turns out contrails contribute to 2% of global warming power and is relatively easily avoided. The cost might be a bit more fuel consumption though.
Which is why work on fixing contrails is so important, it’d be insane to leave 50% improvement at a tiny cost unresolved whilst clawing back small percentage efficiency gains in co2 release from incremental and hideously expensive engine improvements.
We need to do both of course, but contrails should’ve been resolved the moment they were identified as so significant, it’s frustrating how slowly the industry responds to such an enormous opportunity (“we halved our climate impact last year” would be easy marketing)
As long as win there doesn't get used as an excuse to procrastinate on reducing co2. If you asked me I would favor a ban on all non-emergency flying which solves both problems.
thenobsta · · focus · HN ↗
It turns out contrails contribute to 2% of global warming power and is relatively easily avoided. The cost might be a bit more fuel consumption though.
hackernud3s · · focus · HN ↗
ZeroGravitas · · focus · HN ↗
> Recent estimates show that contrails cause about the same amount of warming each year as all the CO₂ emitted by all flights from 1940 to 2018.
hackernud3s · · focus · HN ↗
ZeroGravitas · · focus · HN ↗
For most flights today though, if you only count the CO2 produced you're understanding the climate damage by about half.
hackernud3s · · focus · HN ↗
scratcheee · · focus · HN ↗
We need to do both of course, but contrails should’ve been resolved the moment they were identified as so significant, it’s frustrating how slowly the industry responds to such an enormous opportunity (“we halved our climate impact last year” would be easy marketing)
hackernud3s · · focus · HN ↗