AERO KUFM Commentary Archives

KUFM Commentary

Jess Alger

February 2005

 

I’m Jess Alger a farmer-rancher from north of Stanford Montana. On a regular basis I hear how agriculture causes air pollution and global warming. I think agriculture uses plenty of fuel, but at least we produce food with it. The amount of fuel farmers use is small in comparison to the amount used by passenger and military airplanes in the United States.

I was in the Air National Guard. A fighter jet is basically a flying fuel tank. The wings are of full of fuel, and the fuselage is full of fuel. Depending on how an F-16 is configured (external tanks or not), it can haul between 1,000 and 2,000 gallons of jet fuel The jets burn about 400-500 gallons an hour Normally, when F-16s fly, they go in pairs, or groups of four. As the jets would take off, I kept thinking, Holy smokes, I could run my whole farm for a year with the fuel they’re going to burn up in the next few hours. I use 5,000-6000 gallons in a year.

When I was in Saudi Arabia, I learned an F-15 holds 5,000 gallons of jet fuel The F-15 has two jet engines larger than an F-16 Many military aircraft have the capability to be refueled in the air. The KC-135 Stratotanker refuels the jets in the air. It has 131 foot wing spanned 136 ft long that would be almost half of a football field. Fully loaded, a KC-135 holds 37,900 gallons [Check this]. That is such a tremendous amount of fuel. [A Boeing 707 is the same aircraft has a KC-135)

Passenger jets use just as much fuel as military planes. A Boeing 747-400ER takes 63,705 gallons of fuel to fill it. Its maximum take-off weight is 850,000 pounds. WOW One Semi-truck and loaded trailer weigh somewhere around 80,000 lbs so that would be like flying 11 loaded tractor trailers.

The greenhouse warming effect of airplanes is huge and looks like the biggest culprit in the gradual warming of our planet. According to the website "http://www.chooseclimate.org" www.chooseclimate.org The total warming effect of carbon dioxide nitrous-oxide, water vapor and contrails of Aircraft flying over 30,000 feet is three times greater effect than the greenhouse gases released by fuel burned on the ground.

After 9-11, there was the three days of no flying, and after those three days were over, scientists who looked at data from 4,000 weather stations across the U.S. noticed a definite temperature change. They found that daily temperature ranges for those three days expanded as much as 3-5 degrees Fahrenheit when compared to 1971-2000 ranges. In other words, the days were warmer and the nights were cooler without the aircraft flying. So that would point that the aircraft contrails are causing changes to the climate. .

The website "http://www.chooseclimate.org" www.chooseclimate.org has a map that you can use to calculate how much fuel you’re personally using on your trip. For example, if you’re going to fly from Great Falls to Florida, it comes out to about 97 gallons of fuel per person to fly down there This equals 3,000 kilowatts of electricity when burned as fuel or approx. 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

According to the US Census Bureau in 2003 there were over 9 million airplane departures in the United States not including the rest of the world. The U.S. planes carried 612 million passengers. The average trip traveled was 1046 miles which would be80 gallons per person (by my calculations) X 612,million people = 48billion 9hundred sixty million gallons of fuel. Causing the greenhouse effect on our climate

With today’s technologies, we have lots of options. We can use TVs and use television conferencing be almost in the same room, and, sure, it’s not near as much fun as shaking hands in person, but it’s also doesn’t use near as much energy. Maybe we should start advertising Amtrak and buses more. I personally really like taking Amtrak. Maybe we should have a nationally advertised no fly day to help our atmosphere. February 12th The Sunday before President’s Day 2006 would be a good day. Or maybe we should we try to just stay home more.

I would also like to invite everyone to the AERO Energy Task Force meeting being held on February 26 at 9 a.m. in Helena. This is a newly formed group of AERO members that is concerned with renewable energy and trying to promote renewable energy in Montana.

I’m Jess Alger for the Alternative Energy Resources Organization. AERO welcomes your comments and perspectives. AERO is a grassroots membership organization working to help create farm, food, energy and growth solutions for communities throughout Montana. For more information about our programs call us in Helena at (406) 443-7272.

Should we have a National no fly day ? Should we advertise Amtrak? What is the best method to tell people about this green house effect of aircraft on Global warming? AERO`s number is 443-7272, call and tell the Staff of AERO.