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Campaigning contributes to warming
Airplane travel creates a whole lot of carbon dioxide
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On the Issues
» SPECIAL REPORT: Click here for more of our series on issues of the 2008 presidential campaign
Published: July 18, 2008
WASHINGTON
John McCain and Barack Obama call climate change one of the biggest challenges facing the world, and both pledge major reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide, if elected.
To spread that message, though, their campaigns are pumping thousands of tons of the global-warming gas into the atmosphere.
On a single, two-hour flight from his hometown of Chicago to Washington, Obama's Boeing 757 emits an estimated 19 tons of carbon dioxide, almost as much as the average American is responsible for producing in an entire year.
For McCain, a four-hour flight from his Arizona ranch to Washington on his Boeing 737 emits an estimated 34 tons of carbon dioxide, almost twice as much as the average American.
"Air travel is so carbon intensive. It takes a lot of energy to get a big plane off the ground," said Billy Connelly, the marketing director for Native Energy, a renewable-energy business that has worked with political candidates to reduce carbon emissions from campaign travel.
Both candidates spend a great deal of time in the air, visiting two, three or even four states a day. Each flight contributes to the warming of the planet. So does the gasoline to ferry candidates, staff members and members of the news media from airports to rallies to hotels.
So does the electricity to light, heat and cool satellite campaign offices in several states.
To mitigate the environmental damage, some presidential candidates bought "carbon offsets" from private businesses this year.
The campaigns use mathematical formulas to determine their "carbon footprint." For example, Obama's 757 burns about 900 gallons of fuel an hour, according to estimates by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Each gallon of jet fuel emits 21.1 pounds of carbon dioxide, so a two-hour flight emits about 19 tons of the gas.
Once the footprint is determined, the campaign pays a business for alternative-energy projects that use wind, solar or other clean power sources.
Supporters of offsets say that the replacement negates the carbon put into the atmosphere by the candidates' travel.
Obama's campaign buys carbon offsets from Carbonfund.org. The group uses the money for tree-planting and energy-efficiency and renewable-energy projects, according to its Web site.
It's unclear if McCain's campaign buys carbon offsets. His campaign did not return two phone calls this week asking for comment.
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