Car exhausts and Global warming

[ianess]

I reckon that my car burns about 2000 litres of fuel PER YEAR. By a bit of mental arithmetic that`s very approximately 1.5 Tonnes of petrol.  How does that compare to ONE airliner making ONE flight across the Atlantic Ocean and how on earth can anything I do possibly have any significant contribution to make in the fight against global warming?

[Skids]

Anything you do doesn't make a significant contribution in the fight against global warming.  Its what we all do together that is significant.

[gastwo]

I'd like to see the answer to the first part of ianess' question regarding the transatlantic airliner... (and they dont pay tax on their fuel)

[ianess]

Sorry for answering part of my own question but I got this by Googling..........my total annual consumption in EIGHT MINUTES!

 

A plane like a Boeing 747 uses approximately 1 gallon of fuel (about 4 liters) every second. Over the course of a 10-hour flight, it might burn 36,000 gallons (150,000 liters). According to Boeing's Web site, the 747 burns approximately 5 gallons of fuel per mile (12 liters per kilometer).

This sounds like a tremendously poor miles-per-gallon rating! But consider that a 747 can carry as many as 568 people. Let's call it 500 people to take into account the fact that not all seats on most flights are occupied. A 747 is transporting 500 people 1 mile using 5 gallons of fuel. That means the plane is burning 0.01 gallons per person per mile. In other words, the plane is getting 100 miles per gallon per person! The typical car gets about 25 miles per gallon, so the 747 is much better than a car carrying one person, and compares favorably even if there are four people in the car. Not bad when you consider that the 747 is flying at 550 miles per hour (900 km/h)!