There was more about this in
The Times today. What caught my eye was some of the analysis which didn't quite add up:
Yesterday’s paper calculated that a Boeing 747 travelling 3,700 miles, the distance from London to Miami, would emit 171 tonnes of carbon. The cost of the environmental damage caused by the flight is therefore £12,000. The cost per passenger would be £40, based on British Airways’ current record of selling 300 seats on a 400-seat 747.
The paper also measures the climate change costs of the eight tonnes of carbon emitted by a Boeing 737 flying 600 miles, the distance from London to Nice. Each passenger would pay about £4, based on an average of 135 seats sold on the aircraft.
This morning I have just done a similar trip in a B737 from Manchester to Lyon which is just under 600 nm and we used about 4,000 kg of fuel each way. Can someone with more knowledge than me in these matters please explain how four or even eight tons of JetA can propel 55 tons of aircraft and pax over nearly 1,200 nm at M0.75 AND make all that noise AND leave behind it's own weight in carbon?
Are they trying to say that the amount of fuel burnt leaves behind the same weight in carbon gasses? If so, what about the energy used? Didn't anyone explain to the authors of this 'paper' about E=mC
2?