Topic: Some people argue that air travel should be restricted due to pollution and excessive fuel consumption. To what extend do you agree or disagree?

Many environmentalists urge governments to enforce rules to reduce air travel as airplanes release a lot of pollutants and consume the most amount of fossil fuel. I agree to a large extent as this mode of transport contributes the most to global warming.

To initiate, while aviation accounts for only 2.5% of global CO₂ emissions, its overall impact on climate change is higher. This is because this mode of transport emits a lot of green house gases like methane, sulfur aerosols, and other pollutants. These remain suspended in the atmosphere causing global warming that leads to climate change.

Furthermore, aircrafts need aviation fuel which is refined petroleum, and they consume a lot of it, much more than what’s used in other modes of travel. It’s for this reason that several people propose restrictions on air travel because the refining process of this fuel also consumes a lot of energy.

On the other hand, analysis have proven that journeys by combustion-powered cars and cruise ships are the most carbon-intensive modes of travel, equivalent to air travel, that is in terms of grams of CO2 equivalent emitted per person per kilometer. Hence, instead of imposing restrictions only on air travel, certain laws curbing the use of personal cars that run on fossil fuel must also be enforced, for instance, car-pooling, or a transition from combustion engine cars to electric cars etc.

Stating the compendium, air travel no doubt is a highly polluting mode of transport, but private cars running on fossil fuel are equally bad, hence restrictions must be imposed on both. (260 words).