Another way to think about it is in terms of average person years American: ~15 tonnes CO2 per year - 126 years European: ~10 tonnes CO2 per year - 190 yea

Another way to think about it is in terms of average person years American: ~15 tonnes CO2 per year - 126 years European: ~10 tonnes CO2 per year - 190 years World average: ~5 tonnes CO2 per year - 379 years This one plane emits many lifetimes of CO2 per year. I don't think this accounts for non-CO2 impacts either (e.g. contrails). Multiply the years by about 2 as an estimate of that.