Sustainable or Restrainable? The Environmental Concern within the Aviation Industry

 When it comes to ethics, the first thing that comes to mind for me is sustainability. Ethics is defined as a set of moral values or obligations, and it is our moral obligation to maintain sustainable practice in aviation. The Clean Air Act (CAA) addresses the emission of pollutants from areas of concern, including aircraft, to reduce damage to the environment as much as possible (EPA 2025). This greatly benefits pilots and the population in general. By regulating toxic emissions, this can reduce the damage done to pilots, who are frequently exposed to these chemicals and substances, and the population, especially those near airports, who inhales the same air. By reducing the amount of damage done, pilots are following their moral obligation to reduce harm to themselves and those around them, by creating an ethical and sustainable practice. 

With aviation consistently growing in this world as technology progresses, it is important now, more than ever, to be the turning point towards more sustainable practice. With larger fuel emissions comes a larger toll on the environment, and taking steps to reduce emissions now allows us to create a smoother transition towards completely safe practices. Even from 2013 to 2019, the amount of CO2 increased by 30%, reaching up to 920 million tons (ICCT 2020). Such increase is a result of growing demand for aircraft services, and with more performance comes greater amount of emissions. By working to reduce emissions, we will be able to decrease the rapid rate of emissions, while still allowing the aviation industry to prosper. 

- Chloe 


References
International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). 2020. Fact Sheet Global. October 2020.  https://theicct.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/GACA-FS-EN-oct2020.pdf Links to an external site.

US EPA. (2024, July 31). Summary of the Clean Air Act. US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-air-actLinks to an external site. 

‌

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Juggling the Issue of Smuggling in Aviation

        Smuggling has become a large issue in the aviation field, since aviation is such a quick way to transport goods from long distances, whether it be over airlines or through shipment services. Shipment services often utilize dogs to detect illegal substances, while airlines use scanners to analyze luggage (Saduluski, 2024; Clapper, slide 18). This is a progressive step towards reduction of smuggling, however this only addresses the issue of commercial flight, not including private flights/flights owned by private aircraft. My recommendation is to have baggage (even from private aircraft) documented or scanned at an airport. I believe even a simple scan or just checking luggage in general would be a great step towards reducing smuggling among private aircraft. References Clapper, Kalen. (2025). Aviation Security [Powerpoint Slides]. Dr. Jarrod Sadulski. (2024, June 5).  Drug Trafficking in the United States by Using the Mail . Apus.edu; American Military Un...
Read more

A Hot Topic: The Risk of Heat Waves and Aircraft Performance

Image
      Over the years, there has been a steady trend of increasing temperatures in the summers, displaying harsher conditions and hotter days. As the colder months begin to pass and the warm weather approaches, the issue of high temperatures reducing aircraft performance presents itself. With high temperature, the density altitude increases, meaning decreased performance. Density altitude takes into account pressure (with increasing pressure lowering density altitude), and temperature (increasing temperature increasing density altitude) (Cutler, 2025).       Thus, low pressure and high temperature conditions create a high density altitude. The way an aircraft's wings work is the air is the air above the wing is moving faster than the air below it, and the pressure below the wing is greater than above it, giving it the ability to lift off the ground (scienceworld, n.d.)      With lower air pressure, this therefore reduces the lift, as ther...
Read more