According to Climate Scientists and Politicians Air travel is now the fastest-growing contributor to Apparent Man-Made "Climate Change", and avoiding a flight when there are easy alternatives is probably the biggest single thing that any individual can do to cut their carbon footprint and limit their own impact on the environment.
Eurostar has commissioned independent research to assess the CO2 per passenger produced by a London-Paris Eurostar journey versus that emitted by a passenger on a London-Paris flight. The research looked at actual Eurostar passenger loadings, actual Eurostar power consumption, the way Eurostar's electricity is generated, actual aircraft loadings, actual aircraft fuel consumption, and so on. The conclusion was remarkable: Taking the train to Paris instead of flying cuts CO2 emissions per passenger by a staggering 90%.
With airport check-ins up to 2 hours even for a 1-hour flight, plus the time & cost involved in getting to & from remote airports at each end, taking the train city centre to city centre can cut your stress levels by a similar percentage.
The environmental benefit of taking train instead of plane may be much greater than 90%. Airliners emit their CO2 directly into the upper atmosphere, where it is likely to do over twice the damage of the same quantity emitted at ground level - estimates vary between 2 & 3 times the damage, but 2.7 is the factor normally used. This isn't included in the Eurostar findings.
Here are some estimated comparisons (also excluding the upper atmosphere effect):
CO2 emissions per passenger...
Journey:
London to Paris by Eurostar
Air: 3.5 hours, 244 Kg/CO2
Train: 2.75 hours, 22 Kg/CO2
91% less
London to Edinburgh
Air: 3.5 hours, 193 Kg/CO2
Train: 4.5 hours, 24 Kg/CO2
87% less
London to Nice
Sir: 4 hours, 250 Kg/CO2
Train: 8 hours by Eurostar+TGV, 36 Kg/CO2
85% less
London to Amsterdam
Air: 4 hours, 136 Kg/CO2
Train: Overnight by Dutch Flyer train & ferry, 27.2 Kg/CO2
80% less
London to Dublin
Air: 4 hours, 174.8 Kg/CO2
Train: 8 hours by train & ferry, 46.8 Kg/CO2
73% less
Politicians, Climate Scientists and Actors are the biggest Hypocrites on Earth since according to their own Science they are killing the Planet faster than any one else with their Frequent Flights around the Globe to teach people about reducing CO2 Emissions. #carbontax #canada