United Airlines has committed to cutting its emissions in half by 2050 and will also be the first airline to power a transatlantic flight using biofuel.

Thankfully more and more people seem to be realizing that in order to stop damaging our planet, a lot of things need to change. The widespread use of plastic needs to be cut dramatically, recycling in general needs to be taken more seriously, and so does the use of fossil fuels to power our vehicles.

The worrying truth is that even though we can all instigate changes through small things that we ourselves do at home, if corporations don't follow suit and change their ways then what we do as individuals is just a drop in the ocean. Corporations are following suit though, and one that has just made a huge commitment is United Airlines.

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Oscar Munoz, the CEO of United Airlines, announced this week that his company will cut its emissions by 50% by 2050, as reported by Business Insider. That makes United the first ever airline to make such a commitment. He also announced that United will be flying the first ever transatlantic flight powered by biofuel in the near future, taking off from the airline's hub in San Francisco and landing in Zurich, Switzerland.

When it comes to the changes that these commitments could make, the numbers are staggering. United cutting its carbon emissions in half would eliminate 21 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. That's the equivalent of taking all the cars off the road in both New York and Los Angeles. It will also save United a lot of money. Munoz revealed that the airline pays $15,000 a minute for fuel. Using biofuel is a much cheaper option.

It's all promising stuff from United's CEO, and what's most promising is that a move like this effectively beckons to other airlines to follow suit. If United is doing it, and it cuts emissions by that much, plus cuts your costs by a significant amount, then why isn't everybody doing it? Perhaps by the end of this century airlines won't be using fossil fuels to power aircraft at all, if there's even any oil and coal left by then.

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