All of us love travel: visiting other places and experiencing different cultures across the globe. But, there is a problem: everytime we travel, it releases carbon emissions into the air which contribute to global warming! So, should we carry on using planes to travel, or is the internet enough? This is the big question being discussed in the 21st Century. There are many reasons why travelling by plane isn’t the worst way of travel, for example cars actually release more carbon emissions combined, than planes. There are also many reasons why planes are worse than cars: noise pollution and such. Let’s explore the different reasons why travelling by planes aren’t as bad as other modes of transport and why we should be allowed to keep on flying on them…together!
The first reason why planes aren’t the worst mode of transport is because (as said previously) cars and boats release more carbon emissions than them. Research has shown that boats release more carbon dioxide than aeroplanes which means that if they are going to stop a mode of transport all together it should be boats, not planes. Moreover, boats release a specific type of carbon: black carbon, which, when compared to CO2, is 1,500 times stronger when contributing to global warming: another reason why they shouldn’t be allowed instead of planes.
Moving on to the next point. Lets ask ourselves a question: do we enjoy seeing other places, whether it is the smells, the food, or even just how it looks? For most people, yes! We love seeing how other people differ from ourselves! This is yet another reason why planes should be allowed: to allow people to experience different cultures and have the ‘full’ experience of where they are going. The internet is very useful for many different things: research, watching tv, and for communicating across the globe; all of which are perks to the internet- but some things cannot be seen or be experienced fully through the internet such as: smells, noise, and even the temperature, are things that can only be felt by going to the place. If things did change, and we were forced to ‘travel’ by the internet, would it really be as enjoyable as the real thing? What about travelling on a plane? Travelling on a plane is a small but crucial part of your ‘visit’ to the place you are going to: you get to suffer from your ears popping or get to relax while watching movies; these, even the bad bits, are parts that make the trip you go on unique and more memorable!
Ok, so we’ve discussed why aeroplanes are better than other ways of transport, but still, we cannot ignore the fact that global warming is happening at this very moment and each flight we take contributes to a small factor of global warming. So, what can we do about this: we love flights and visiting other places but want to contribute to stopping (or at least slowing down) global warming. Well, we can set limits to how many flights we have in a year, or even in a few months. We should all do something like this: 1 long flight (approximately 12 hours), or 4 small flights, in three months. If many people do this, it will help reduce global warming and still allow us to enjoy flying to other places.
We have now looked through many ways why aeroplanes are not that bad, and how to help prevent global warming from going any further: aeroplanes don’t release as much carbon emissions as other vehicles; each experience allows us something new in our life with different sights and sounds. We also now know that global warming can be reduced if we reduce how many times we go on planes. This is why we should carry on using planes to travel and why the internet isn’t the best way of ‘travelling’.
Year 9 Article Homework
