Commercial Boeing 747 aircraft consume roughly one gallon of jet fuel every single second during a standard cruising altitude flight.

A closer look

Commercial Boeing 747 aircraft consume roughly one gallon of jet fuel every single second during a standard cruising altitude flight. Over the course of a ten-hour international trip, that massive metal bird will greedily guzzle around thirty-six thousand gallons of highly refined liquid dinosaurs just so you can watch three movies and complain about the legroom. We often panic about our little hybrid sedans getting slightly less mileage when the air conditioning is running, completely ignoring the fact that global tourism is entirely propped up by flying machines that drink fuel like a dehydrated marathon runner. It really puts your attempts to use paper straws into a grim, cynical perspective when you realize a single flight across the Atlantic uses enough fuel to fill a neighborhood swimming pool. But please, do tell me more about how carrying a reusable canvas tote bag to the grocery store is going to save the polar bears from melting into oblivion