http://time.com/3957203/climate-change-flight-time/

 

Longer flights would burn more fuel and contribute more to climate change, a study suggests

 

Flights over the Pacific Ocean have gotten longer due to climate change-related changes in wind patterns, a shift that could be mirrored in other regions across the globe, according to new research.

Air travel currently accounts for more than 3% of the carbon emissions driving human-caused climate change, and the study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, suggests a feedback loop where longer flight times lead to greater carbon emissions and vice versa. If flight lengths continue to grow as climate change intensifies, so will the industry's carbon emissions.

Researchers evaluated data on air time-the time spent in the air between takeoff and landing-on flights between Honolulu and Los Angeles, Honolulu and San Francisco and Honolulu and Seattle on four major carriers over an 18-year period. They attributed 88% of the year-to-year variability in flight times on those routes to two climate phenomena: the El Niño Southern Oscillation and the Arctic Oscillation. In total, those phenomena added 133 flying hours per year on those routes, or around one minute per flight, the authors conclude.