Scientists team up with airlines to tackle harmful source of planet-warming pollution: ‘This is a huge opportunity’

The Washington Post reported that several airlines, including American and Delta, are already working with scientists to reroute flight paths in ways that will avoid these contrails — white, wispy clouds that form behind aircraft as hot exhaust and soot particles emitted from engines interact with cool, wet air and condense at high altitudes.

Jill Blickstein, vice president for sustainability at American Airlines, told the Post the collaboration was an opportunity to “have a chance to learn and be part of the solution.”

It is believed that contrails are a problem since they trap heat radiating from the Earth’s surface, and at night they don’t have the effect of reflecting some of the incoming heat as they do in the day. Their actual impact is still being studied. Estimates range from 8% to 57% of aviation’s overall warming effect, with huge margins of error, according to the Post.

Inspired by research on the warming effects of contrails, per the Post, the European Union will require airlines to monitor, report, and verify all non-carbon climate effects, including contrails, beginning in 2025.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, aviation is responsible for 10% of all harmful gases caused by transportation in the United States, as reported by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. It also accounts for 3.5% of all human-caused pollution.

A European Union study, cited by the group Transport & Environment, reported that airplane contrails contribute twice the Earth-heating effect of their carbon pollution.