Aviation Again

This article is about the aviation industry and the Farnborough show, in which big players try to sell aircraft to companies and governments. The show itself is a display of disposable consumer waste, as it is constructed every two years and has a life-span of just one week. The report also discusses the horrific levels of pollution caused by airports themselves, the chemicals used to treat planes etc, not to mention the noise pollution.

It is some small cause for celebration that now one of the major factors such companies are keen to push is the fuel efficiency of their planes. However, they still refuse to acknowledge what to me is a fact: that we need to reduce air travel. There are suggestions instead that we can further improve fuel efficiency. Thus far, however, every year we have succeeded in doing this, the number of flights being taken has increased at a much greater rate, so we are still going backwards rather than forwards. Some groups suggest that we need to introduce a congestion charge, and it seems clear to me that we need to tax aviation more. Several countries have done this, for example there is a charge of a Euro per passenger per flight in France now. But, it just needs to be done on a much larger scale. For most flying is a luxury that could be foregone. And no government is willing to risk saying something this unpopular. I understand why, but sooner or later we will have to face the facts: yes, travelling represents an amazing opportunity for experiencing new areas and cultures, but can our planet afford to pay the price for our personal gain?

As someone whose study has always been into Modern Languages and Cultures, I fully understand the desire to go and experience other countries and other ways of living, even just for holidays. But I have to accept that my doing so will directly contribute to their destruction. And I can't on any level justify to myself that my personal benefit can compare with the losses I will cause. There are very few people, for whom I would be satisfied I could justify their journeys. And none of them are for sunny weeks away or weekend city breaks.

Whilst many insist that the aviation industry is essential to our economies, we have to consider the picture in the longer term. The International Air Transport Association (IATA)'s chief executive, Giovani Bisignani suggests that eradicating damage from air travel would not be worthwhile: 'the result is only a 2% global improvement on CO2 emissions. But the impact on global economies would be disastrous'. Firstly, the proportion of CO2 damage caused by the aviation industry has dramatically increased every year in recent times and secondly, a 2% reduction of something this enormous would be a welcome victory for Earth! Do we really believe that in fifty years' time, our economies will still be valuing aviation as they now do? Or, will they be driven by the need to develop environmental technologies that our long-suffering planet can sustain?

I can believe that people have so little respect for the Earth, to be honest, sad though it is. What I can't understand is how they have so little respect for their own futures. Anyone who has a child must wonder how they will explain the state of our planet to them in decades to come. Just like the old war propoganda, where the small children ask Daddy what he did in the war, I am interested to know how people will answer their children and grandchildren when they ask us why we did so little to solve problems we could see would plague their existence when we had every chance and all the necessary technology to do it. And the simple answer is that it is all about money. I don't think it's an answer that would satisfy me and I don't think it will satisfy the generations that will follow us either. Not least becuase I don't even believe it's true. If Britain wanted to, we could very well strengthen our eceonomy by leading the field in the development and production of green technologies. Whilst more and more companies are springing up, they are still very marginal. This simply shouldn't be the case, and we really should have begun this process so much earlier. And once again, we fail to look far enough into the future. Even I, as a child, foresaw that we would face the problems we now do as well as how we could minimise them, though I am perhaps still shocked by how quickly the situation is deteriorating. And I reckon I can see where we'll be in another ten or fifteen years time, and it's just not going to be good enough.

No links today really, just a rant, but maybe I'll come back and add some more neutral links soon so that other people can make up their own minds and look at both sides...