Tech Facts are Sometimes Nonsense

In Bryan Walsh's "Greenhouse Airlines" article in the February 12, 2007 issue of Time Magazine, he wrote that a jet airliner emits 5,200 lbs of carbon per passenger during a New York-Tokyo-New York round trip. In case you're wondering, that equals roughly 780,000 lbs of carbon each way. Since a fully loaded Boeing 767 has a maximum takeoff weight (including fuel, passengers, luggage, etc.) of only 401,000 lbs., some of us are trying to figure out how Mr. Walsh came up with his carbon emission statistics. According to the laws of physics, the carbon emissions stated in the article are simply impossible. For Mr. Walsh's statistic to be accurate, every molecule of the aircraft and its payload (people, fuel, luggage, food, seats, and the rest of the aircraft itself) would have to be converted into carbon then magically increased 400% in order to create 5,200 lbs of carbon per passenger during such a round trip. I recently traveled from Toronto to London and back. I was not converted into a carbon smudge.