The Climate And Air Travel
Reduction or Boom
This morning I read these words in the Sydney Morning Herald online:
Pre-COVID levels saw airlines carry 4 billion people across the world every year and the industry predicts that number to double by 2036.
That means a lot more planes in the sky, and that's happening while cargo and private flights are expected to increase too.
Besides CO2 emissions travelling by metal tube has other emission issues.
\What we will see as more and more people can afford to fly is that this impact on our environment will continue to grow. The aviation industry is well behind the curve on new technology around how to fuel these flying machines.
I don’t have a bucket list for international travel before I die. There is so much within Australia that I am yet to experience. I am not sure how I will cope or deal with the distances. It is a work in progress. Just because my time is limited do I piss into the wind?
The romance of traveling to unknown parts of the world still tugs at my heart. Of course it does, I worked in the airline industry for 17 years. I walked the tarmac and I have done my miles in the air. I worked for a big IT firm that flew me around to meetings even though that same company had invented the technology to have virtual meetings years before Zoom.
Many of us have family and friends around the world we would like to see. All of us who are well off enough to make these dreams happen will probably not eliminate air travel. We are so accustomed to it even if we do believe that the planet is in trouble.
The companies that manufacture and fly these jets should do all within their means to make air travel more environmentally friendly. If it is quite costly to do so, you know they won’t rush into it until they are forced to do it. And then the cost will be passed onto the consumer.
We can make our decisions and we can think about what is driving us to travel. Or we can just turn a blind eye to it, pay some extra money to buy some carbon offsets or credits, and feel good about our travel. Do they work?
Check this article out….
https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/carbon-credits-and-offsets-explained/
I have been preaching doom about air travel for some time now telling people if they want to do it, do it now. Will governments allow it? Will the fuel exist? What impact can our planet stand?
I probably should not tell people to travel now. I will stop that.
Yes, I am no scientist….
My feeling is that you can’t offset something that billions of people do each year. In 2019, over 4.2 billion passengers boarded flights. We had some downtime due to COVID-19, but the numbers are back up and the enforced lack of travel has given everyone the bug.
The choice is always yours to make.
And don’t even get me started on people with private jets….
Now I can see you wavering
As you try to decide
You've got a war in your head
And it's tearing you up inside
You're trying to make sense
Of something that you just don't see
Trying to make sense now
And you know you once held the key
But that was the river
And this is the sea!-Mike Scott