According to the Cape Times 95, 000 flights were cancelled this past week due to the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. But while I can’t help thinking about how many carbon emissions have been saved I decided to see what the environmental impacts of the volcano have been.
According to Information is Beautiful, the European Aviation Industry emits 344,109 tonnes of CO2 per day and they estimate that the volcano is emitting 150, 000 tonnes per day. They have calculated that 206,456 tonnes of CO2 have been saved due to 60% of flights being cancelled accross Europe. This does not however take into account increase of other modes of transport such as car/taxi use.
See their diagram below or visit http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/planes-or-volcano/ .
