Name(s):
Air pollution by jet planes
Reduced air quality in vicinity of airports
Incidence
Jet aircraft are estimated to produce 2 to 3% of NOx emissions, but constitute the only source of high-level NOx (which may be implicated in global warming and ozone depletion). Aircraft also produce high-level water vapour, which forms ice particles which reflect heat back to earth, adding to the greenhouse effect. Air transport constitutes 2 to 3% of carbon dioxide emissions produced by the use of fossil fuels, equivalent to about 1% of the annual greenhouse forcing effect of carbon dioxide emissions. As a result of increasingly stringent environmental requirements being acted on by aircraft manufacturers, it is likely that NOx emissions from aircraft may be reduced by between 30% by the mid-1990s, and by a further 40 to 50% by 2010. Carbon monoxide emissions from aircraft have decreased by 70% in the decade since 1982.
Counter-claim
Today's aircrafts pollute less and are not as noisy as their predecessors.