The C02 emissions from airplane trips converted to C02 emissions from our daily routines.
This blog post is a small study of how big of an impact traveling with an airplane actually has. I’ll be trying to compare the amount of CO2 spent on traveling with normal daily life situations – to showcase how big impact tourism with airplanes actually has.
Disclaimer!
Before jumping into our findings we want to emphasize that this is NOT a big scientific academic study. You have to be aware that our method is not perfect, does have uncertainties, and does not include all factors. We are using online calculation services that use very general and average numbers, and these calculation services also have many limitations and uncertainties. Furthermore, we want to place special importance on the fact that CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas that is emitted.
We, therefore, ask you to perceive this post, not as fact, but more as an idea of the amount of CO2 emissions an airplane causes.
In our latest blog post, we wrote about our journey from Copenhagen to Malaga. We compared our journey from Copenhagen to Malaga in an electric car with an airplane fare from Copenhagen to Malaga.
We compared the price, time, and CO2 amount spent on these two journeys.
The conclusion was that you spend 15x more CO2 on traveling from Copenhagen – to Malaga by airplane. You can read the complete blog post below.
When calculating CO2 emissions, we often end up in a lot of numbers along with g, Kg, and tons – something which for us can be difficult to relate to. Therefore we wanted to make a list where we compare CO2 emissions spend on airplane journeys compared with daily routines.
NETFLIX
Netflix is a streaming service well-known worldwide. Many of us are spending a lot of hours every week watching on their streaming service – but we’ve never thought of how much CO2 is actually spent.
According to Carbon Trust “the carbon footprint of viewing one hour of video-on-demand streaming (approximately 55gCO2e in Europe) is very small compared to other everyday activities.”.
All the samples above are compared with 1 person going on a return flight from Copenhagen to a destination and the amount of CO2 spent on full days watching Netflix or other streaming services.
The CO2 of the airplane fares has been calculated with the online calculator Carbon Footprint.
| Airplane | Netflix |
| CPH – Berlin = 0.25 tons of CO2 | 189 days of watching |
| CPH – Paris = 0.38 tons of CO2 | 288 days of watching |
| CPH – Malaga = 0.70 tons of CO2 | 530 days of watching (Almost 1 1/2 years) |
| CPH – Dubai = 1.36 tons of CO2 | 1.030 days of watching (Almost 3 years) |
| CPH – Bali = 3.26 tons of CO2 | 2.469 days of watching (almost 7 years) |
HOT SHOWERS
For many people it’s a normal thing to take a hot shower every day – some people even take showers twice a day if they have sports for example. Personally, we do appreciate a warm shower – but we rarely think about how it’s actually affecting our CO2 footprint.
According to The Eco Guide, it cost 12.24 kgCO2 to produce hot water for 5 mins under the showerhead.
Center for Decease Control and Prevention claims that an average person takes 8 minutes of hot showers daily. To put that in perspective: 1x return flight from Copenhagen to Bali = 5 Years of hot showers.
| Airplane | Hot showers |
| CPH – Berlin = 0.25 tons of CO2 | 20 hours |
| CPH – Paris = 0.38 tons of CO2 | 31 hours |
| CPH – Malaga = 0.70 tons of CO2 | 57 hours |
| CPH – Dubai = 1.36 tons of CO2 | 111 hours |
| CPH – Bali = 3.26 tons of CO2 | 266 hours |
WHAT YOU EAT
Eating is one of the basic things we need in life to survey. However, there is a big difference in what we eat. Below is a calculation based on 3 different diets; Vegan, Vegetarians, and Meat. The meat diet is based on different meat throughout the week such as chicken, duck, cow, and pig according to Vedvarende Energi (renewable energy).
To put that in perspective: 1x return flight from Copenhagen to Malaga = More than 1 year of a vegan diet.
| Airplane | Vegan | Vegetarian | Meat |
| CPH – Berlin = 0.25 tons of CO2 | 20 weeks | 13 weeks | 5 weeks |
| CPH – Paris = 0.38 tons of CO2 | 31 weeks | 20 weeks | 8 weeks |
| CPH – Malaga = 0.70 tons of CO2 | 57 weeks | 36 weeks | 16 weeks |
| CPH – Dubai = 1.36 tons of CO2 | 111 weeks | 71 weeks | 31 weeks |
| CPH – Bali = 3.26 tons of CO2 | 266 weeks | 171 weeks | 74 weeks |
DAILY ELECTRICITY
If you are in the following category: “I think about how I use my electronics. And always turns off all electronic devices before leaving my home – except the WIFI and fridge. I always fill up my dishwasher and washing machine before usage”. If you are part of an average household then you spent 288 kg of CO2 every year on your daily electricity according to Vedvarende Energi (renewable energy).
This includes things such as your TV, Microwave, Wifi, Fridge, Freezer, Hairdryer, charging of phones, cameras, watches, electric toothbrushed, and so on.
| Airplane | Years of electricity |
| CPH – Berlin = 0.25 tons of CO2 | (almost 1 year) |
| CPH – Paris = 0.38 tons of CO2 | +1 year |
| CPH – Malaga = 0.70 tons of CO2 | +2 years |
| CPH – Dubai = 1.36 tons of CO2 | +4 1/2 year |
| CPH – Bali = 3.26 tons of CO2 | +11 years |
