A pollution solution for air travelers

If you are worried about the environmental effect of your travel, technology company Brighter Planet has come up with an app that can help you choose which flight emits less pollution.

Careplane (careplane.org) uploads into your Chrome, Safari or Firefox browser. It's designed to launch when you search for flights on specific travel websites, but we had the best results with Kayak. The app calculates pollution from each flight based on historic flight data, including plane weight and fuel efficiency.

For example, the program says a nonstop round-trip from Los Angeles International Airport to Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport on small regional jets generates 618 pounds of greenhouse gases. In contrast, a nonstop round-trip from L.A. to San Francisco on a larger carrier generates 730 pounds of pollution.