The 2008 Olympic Torch has been the star of international headlines lately. Protests in England and France. Demonstrations in San Francisco. Political turmoil aside, the torch leaves a big carbon footprint in it's wake.
The torch is visiting 23 cities during a global sweep that includes stops in London, Paris, San Francisco, Bangkok, Islamabad and Almaty, Kazakhstan, among other cuties. The Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee says the journey will cover more than 85,000 miles.
When the torch isn’t traveling on streets, it’s traveling by plane: an Air China A330 custom painted with the Olympic logo and color scheme. The A330 burns 5.4 gallons of fuel per mile. That translates into 462,400 gallons for the entire trip. Every gallon of jet fuel burned produces 23.88 pounds of CO2. Do the math, and the Olympic Torch Relay is adding about 11 million pounds of carbon to the atmosphere. That’s 5,500 tons!
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