Climate change has been brought to the fore front since the 1990’s and has continued to be a worldwide concern. Climate change, also known as ‘global warming’ or the ‘greenhouse effect’ is a combination of causes that has created one massive effect. This climate change has caused numerous implications on the weather, the global economy, ecosystems, the environment, etc. Specifically, recently a meteorologist found that greenhouse gases will affect flight times. Furthermore, not only will flight times be drastically longer but, commuters will experience more discomfort because of plane turbulence. This will also lead to ticket price hikes and further pollution to Earth’s atmosphere. Climate change has serious ramifications on planet Earth that lead to the cause of more clear-air turbulence in the skies, and discomfort passengers on aircrafts. This includes the excess of greenhouse gases that are already damaging planet Earth. We should resolve these issues by reducing the emittance of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Furthermore, by investing in green technology we can keep passengers safer on planes, reduce ticket prices, and reduce the emittance of greenhouse gases. The U.S. government should come up with a universal coalition so we can globally attack (solve) the issue at hand. Therefore, the United States government should invest in clean energy for a greener planet. 

`Climate change is a global heat phenomenon. Since the 90’s, average temperatures have been rising steadily.  Earth’s natural greenhouse effect happens when about 70% of the incoming sunlight is absorbed by the ground, water, and the atmosphere (Riebeek). This sunlight naturally heats our planet creating long lasting warming effects on the Earth. The natural greenhouse effect stabilizes life on Earth. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor. Water vapor is the one gas that is almost fully responsible for the warming of the Earth. Water vapor doubles the warming of Earth caused by carbon dioxide alone (Riebeek). “Water vapor causes about two-thirds of greenhouse warming” (Riebeek). The more temperatures rise, more water vapor evaporates from the surface into the atmosphere.  Recently, Earth’s climate has changed due to variations in sunlight and fossil fuel activity. Greenhouse gas emissions come from various sources such as the cattle population, automobiles, and global industrialization. In the past 250 years, human activity has been raising the greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, by the burning of fossil fuels and from vanishing carbon-absorbing forests (Riebeek). Earth’s surface temperature has been rapidly rising within the past decade. “Based on plausible emission scenarios, average surface temperatures could rise between 2°C and 6°C by the end of the 21st century” (Riebeek). As the world consumes more fossil fuels, greenhouse gas concentrations will continue to increase. Various emissions have impacted or are impacting our environment, especially emissions from air crafts. What we also produce on Earth and emit into the air impacts climate change as well. By investing in greener technology, especially in our daily lives, we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions drastically. We need to find ways to reduce these emissions and in order to better our climate. 

Our American government has always been in a disagreement about climate change. The Republicans has always claimed that President Obama did nothing to address the problem of climate change and its potential threats because Congress kept disagreeing with him. They argue this but, President Obama did establish a climate change policy that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Republicans want to impose a carbon tax on the population of the United States. They think it will encourage more long-term investments and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Republicans claim that this policy will achieve reducing emissions by nearly half of all of Obamas climate regulations currently in place. Democrats on the other hand want to save the environment and impede economic growth without the tax. If the American Government issues a tax such as this it’s not really solving a problem it’s just requiring the American people to come up with more money out of their pocket. 

With the continuous fight between Congress and President Obama that lasted his entire presidency, not a whole lot had been achieved because the Republicans never approved of his climate change policies. Now with the new Trump administration in the White House, things will be done but in the wrong way. For example, this carbon tax that Republicans want to establish in order to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. It sounds too good to be true but, in the long-run it will not be efficient enough. I would not want to pay for an extra tax on top of all of the other taxes that I have to pay in the name of saving of the environment. Democrats want to come up with a climate change policy that will reduce emissions without the sacrifice of Americans tax dollars going to waste. Also climate change is a global issue, not just an American issue. In hopes of the Democrats, I believe that they can fight to reinstate Obamas climate change regulations because these regulations can help save our planet. Furthermore, if Congress can come up with a universal coalition on climate change, we can move forward and save our deteriorating planet.

There is one opposing study I found that just blows climate change and air travel out of proportion. This study was conducted by researcher, Maarten Kroesen, Faculty of Technology at Delft University of Technology in Delft, Netherlands. She explored people’s viewpoints on air travel and climate change. A series of statements on aviation were discussed along with environment issues by 491 subjects in the Netherlands. Six different viewpoints revealed and identified as integration, ignorance, denial, necessity, guilt and fatalism. She is claiming that air travel behavior and environmental awareness do not intersect completely. Subjects that were under 30 years old were more conscientious about how they travel than people who were over 30 years old. I believe that this study is truly false. When it comes to analyzing peoples’ thoughts and feelings towards climate change and their air travel habits, using a small sample size is not feasible. Maybe younger people are more careful about environment and climate change than older people? You cannot depict how people feel about climate change and aircraft pollutants for the rest of the world. If I were to conduct this type of research project, it would take me a few years to determine who takes the side of climate change and who does not.

 Greenhouse gases have a direct effect on flight turbulence. According to meteorologist, Paul Williams, from the UK’s University of Reading, found that when the carbon dioxide concentration is doubled, it causes jet stream winds to strengthen (CNN). Williams studied New York City’s JFK Airport flights to London’s Heathrow Airport. He found that strengthened winds due to carbon dioxide concentration could mean shortened eastbound flights by five and a half hours, but longer in the other direction by seven hours. “We found that transatlantic aircrafts will be in the air for another 2,000 hours each year”, Williams said (CNN). This will effect planes flying above 35,000 feet in air. Along with flights projecting to be longer, greenhouse gases will also effect the comfort people will be experiencing while flying and hikes in ticket prices for flights will be required. Greenhouse gases are good for our planet up to a certain extent. When there is an overabundance of greenhouse gases, that’s when they start harming Earth’s atmosphere and effect the jet streams, furthermore causing more clear-air turbulence.

Longer flights and double the turbulence are due to the effects of climate change and changes in the jet stream. According to the National Weather Service, jet streams are narrow bands of strong winds in the upper levels of the atmosphere. Winds blow west to east in the jet streams but flow also shifts to the north and south. The jet stream includes the temperature gradients between the cold and warm sub-tropical air masses. The temperatures and speeds are always the greatest in the winter time. Normally, jet streams reach around 60 knots (Service). Around the winter time, jet streams can reach over 200 knots and potentially can increase over time due to climate change (Service). Jet streams can also last thousands of miles long, but only a few hundred miles wide and a few thousand in depth. They can intensify or die out which makes it difficult for aviators to put long range flight plans into place. With technology moving vastly, we should be able to engineer a technology for airplanes that will be able to detect incoming bands of clear-air turbulence that are more than 30 minutes away. By implementing this technology, passengers can feel more secure when they get on that next flight. For air pilots, this technology will help them find an alternative route to the planes destination without running into trouble with the skies. 

Clear-air turbulence is a major factor when making a decision to get on a flight. Clear-air turbulence occurs when two different masses of air are moving at different speeds and end up colliding (Lallanilla). It is considered to be dangerous and a lot of people do not know it because it can happen at any moment and can potentially injure many. This is due to the fact that it can happen even when the sky is perfectly clear with not even a cloud in the atmosphere. Clear-air turbulence is often created by jet streams and surrounding thunderstorms. On the first of June in 2009, Airbus A330, crashed because of clear-air turbulence and all 228 people died on board. This was because the plane was near severe weather and had several symptoms of clear-air turbulence. According to the Aviation Weather Surveillance Systems, “A US NTSB survey showed that weather is a predominant cause of aviation accidents, accounting for approximately 57.1% fatal and 27.0% non-fatal incidents” (Mahapatra 1999). This is a serious problem to the aviation industry and we should try to avoid clear-air turbulence as much as possible. Again like I said before, with the technology that we have currently, we should be able to come up with a way to warn pilots about upcoming turbulence and preview a planes path to their final destination.

When you travel by plane, Earth’s rotation also impacts your length of travel. According to Sean Kane, an author for The Economist, “Since points on the Earth around the equator have farther to travel during one rotation that the parts of the Earth near the poles, those equatorial areas are moving faster than the rest of the Earth” (Kane). As the planet moves, we move along with it pulling everything toward the east and everything that is living (Kane). Earth’s rotation spins counter clockwise so it takes an extra hour longer to fly west than east. With the increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the air, makes it harder for the aviation teams to control their plane leading to longer flights and more turbulence. Earth has been rotating naturally and how it should be operating. With the overabundance of pollutants in the air, these pollutants have affected Earth’s rotation and its jet streams by putting them up to speed and creating more opportunities for clear-air turbulence to come up in an airplanes journey to its’ destination.

Two Indian scientists from Bangalore, both published an article talking about the problem of clear air turbulence and why we should understand this phenomenon. Due to technological improvements, pilots, and with the assistance of telegraph tower workers, are able to locate bad weather early on to notify pilots and have them steer clear of this direction (Venkatesh, Mathew). Even without inclement weather, turbulence is still at large. Clear-air turbulence has been a challenge for many, including, passengers. It can lead to injuries of passengers and to the plane itself. Many proposals and mechanisms have been established that explain the clear-air turbulence problem.

Ben Abramson, from USA Today, explained his experience with clear-air turbulence and how unpleasant it was. He was on a Boeing 747 flying from Athens, Greece to New York. About eight hours into his flight out of 10, it hit without warning and the plane started to go down. The plane then leveled off very fast and many people were injured even if they were just sitting in their seat. Seven people in total were injured from this he said and it was enough to get attention. He told USA Today that he watched an older woman out in the aisle was almost inches from hitting the planes ceiling to landing sideways. The pilot came onto the PA and explained what had hit them unexpectedly to the passengers and alerted other flights to avoid that area. Having seven people being injured on a flight, you would think that’s not very many but it actually is a lot. When you have passengers on your flight, you want to make sure that they are comfortable and not worried about anything happening on the aircraft during their flight. Hearing about this incident makes me worried about whether or not I will hit clear-air turbulence in the near future. This story is one example of many more major collisions to come. If we do not take care of our planet or implement some regulations, our atmosphere will continue to deteriorate, eventually making it not safe for passengers to get onto airplane.

 Since the 70’s, more airplanes have been in the sky and that number has doubled every 15 years (Gulliver). In current times, this number has even quadrupled because people have decided to fly more and because it is a much faster way of travel. Also, it is true that more airplanes are being manufactured and flown throughout time. With the inclusion of developing countries, they have demanded more airplanes to be built and shipped because of their increased economic stability. The more airplanes that are flying, the more emissions we will be putting into our atmosphere depleting the healthiness of the skies. These emissions can also affect the comfortability of a passengers’ flight as well causing more clear-air turbulence to be present in the skies. 

Aircraft orders have been increasing every 15 years along with increased global air traffic (Gulliver). This is another issue at hand that will contribute to the deterioration of our atmosphere even more. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), under the United Nations, announced a plan for mandatory carbon-offsetting on all international flights. At least 65 countries have pledged to this potential law (Gulliver). This law will take effect in 2021 with those signatures involved and by 2027, participation is to be mandatory for all countries on planet Earth (Gulliver). This law will hope to decrease carbon emissions into the air for years to come. I feel like this is a great policy that the ICAO came up with because we need not just the United States to be aware of this on-going issues but the rest of the world. We should all put in an effort to reduce emissions in the air and tackle climate change.

With all of the research that I have found with the inclusion of my opinion, climate change has a definite impact on the future of aviation. If we do not try to do anything to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and clear-air turbulence, flights will become more dangerous to be on and more expensive. Studies have shown that greenhouse gas emissions are a cause in clear-air turbulence which links to bumpier and longer flights for passengers. Throughout this paper I have expressed my thoughts and opinions on climate change and aviation regulations. With the technology that we have now, we should be able to utilize it to keep humanity safe. The U.S. government should also come up with a universal agreement on climate change and take the necessary steps towards becoming a more greener Earth. For the safety of the world, we should put in all our efforts to look at this issue further in depth and solve the aviation issues caused by climate change. 
