Ask a selection of people whether they think cars or aeroplanes are worse for the environment in terms of carbon emissions and the majority will probably say aeroplanes – however they would be wrong.

In the UK, official figures show that many people believe that flights are more damaging than car journeys – in a National Statistics survey conducted in 2007, 34% of people thought cars were the most environmentally damaging form of transport with 40% believing aircraft were the most damaging. This is a change from 2006 when 35% of people selected planes and 39% selected cars.

The UK’s Department of Transport estimated that in 2005, cars emitted around 69.9 million tonnes of CO2 whilst flights – both domestic and international – emitted just 37.5 million tonnes.

Part of the reason for the increase in people believing that planes are more damaging is thanks to media coverage over the past year, particularly on stories such as the ‘climate camp’ organised by anti-aviation protestors over the planned expansion of Heathrow airport.

However, the issue is not as simple as the quantity of the carbon emissions – many believe that emissions from planes are more damaging than emissions from cars because they are emitted higher in the atmosphere. It should also be noted that car travel is usually less of a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions per person per mile travelled and that it is only the fact that far more miles are travelled by car than by plane that cars are found to be emitting more than planes.

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