Guiltess Air Travel

Image: Peter Hostermann

So, were you one of the horrid masses who stepped on a plane this summer? You were? Shame on you. If you read the newspapers, you would know that flying (the dirty F-word) is about as good for the planet as smog is for asthmatics. 

Air travel has become the new environmental no-no. We in the UK are constantly bombarded with propaganda about how flying is the new preserve of climate criminals, that each flight is another twist of the knife in the back of Mother Earth. Those of us that choose to fly are denounced as environmental hooligans, no better than George Bush and his oil-hungry cronies.

As George Monbiot in the Guardian put it succinctly: “Flying across the Atlantic is now as acceptable as child abuse.”

The headlines tell the same story: “Aviation is the fastest growing cause of climate change and a major threat to the earth and everything on it” – this from a UK anti-aviation pressure group, Plane Stupid.

These statements reflect the prevailing attitude of many commentators. But is flying really that bad? Compared to composting, sure. But when you look at the numbers of how we pollute, planes just aren’t as sky high as they’d like us to believe.

Admittedly, in the UK we love to fly. Just last month British Airways announced a 5.3% increase in passenger numbers for this August compared to last year. British Airways carried 3.1 million people around the globe last month alone, and a massive 14.8 million people last year.

Budget airlines like Easy Jet and Ryan Air have dramatically increased the numbers of UK fliers jaunting around Europe to boot. Between 1999 and 2006 Easy Jet increased its yearly passenger numbers from 3.1 million to nearly 33 million.

But the media message on flying is starting to work. Recent surveys have suggested that 13% of Britons have already altered their air travel habits as a result of the media onslaught against flying. Last month 2,000 people attended a week-long “Camp for Climate Action” outside London’s Heathrow airport, with the intention to disrupt British Airways and draw attention to impact that aviation has on climate change.

Politicians are beginning to jump on the bandwagon, too. The World Bank, UK members of parliament, and major political parties have suggested enormous green taxes on air travel. Just this week, David Cameron, leader of the UK opposition Conservative Party endorsed a massive report by millionaire environmentalist Zac Goldsmith that highlighted the need for taxes on short-haul flights.

We need to reduce fossil fuel use, and quickly. But let’s all retain a sense of perspective here on where we need to direct those cuts:

• According to the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), aviation accounts for around 2% of global anthropogenic (man-made) carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. Power generation contributes a hefty 24%. Other major contributors are deforestation, agriculture and industry. The predicted ‘massive rise’ in global air travel will probably only cause aviation to be accountable for 3% of global CO2 emissions by 2050, according to 1999 predictions by the IPCC.

• Modern airliners can be efficient ways to travel. Per person, the new and ultra-efficient Airbus A380 emits 75 grams of CO2per kilometer traveled. Compare this with 138 grams of CO2/km for a Mini. The A380 is only slightly less efficient even than the ‘poster-boy’ of environmentally responsible travel, the train (which emits 60 grams of CO2/km).

• Wearing clothes is a large cause of anthropogenic CO2 emission. A recent study by the Carbon Trust found that, of the 11 tons of CO2 emitted by the average Briton in a year, 1 ton was related directly to that person’s clothing. This figure takes into account the emissions from manufacture of the clothes, transportation to the retailer, and all the associated washing and drying which (most of us) put our garments through. Contrast this emission from clothes with an average 0.68 tons of CO2 released from the flights a British person will make in a year.

So, by any sane measure, we should all walk round naked and boycott Minis.

It is true that aviation, like any other sector, needs to do its bit to help fight climate change.  It’s also true that carbon emitted from the airline industry has nearly twice the warming effect of other greenhouse gases because it is emitted so high in the atmosphere.  But there is hope and scope for improvement. According to US Air Transport Association president and CEO James May, US air carriers have improved average fuel efficiency by 44 percent since 1990. Although there is still no alternative to jet fuel or kerosene.

Virgin Atlantic chairman Richard Branson has proposed a number of initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions from aviation, including advocating aircraft take a continuous descent approach in to airports, cutting the extra fuel that a staggered approach uses; and reducing aircraft weight and optimizing the routes that the aircraft take to reduce fuel consumption.

So I won’t feel guilty when I fly to the States on holiday this year. And, yes, I will offset the resultant carbon emission. But don’t get me started on THAT subject, I’ll leave it for another article….