jet travel and global warming

[sophiaserpentia]

So Richard Branson says he's going to dedicate $3,000,000,000 over the next 10 years to combat global warming.

Branson is the owner of Virgin. Virgin runs an airline. Jet planes account for 3% of greenhouse gas emissions, but contribute disproportionately to global warming because these gasses are emitted right there in the upper atmosphere, where they do the most harm. They also aggravate the greenhouse effect because contrails linger as clouds.

Does anyone else see a problem here? Branson could do more to combat global warming by grounding his fleet of jets immediately and financing alternate modes of transportation.

Some science fiction authors, such as David Brin, foresee the return of zepplin travel. Whatever the case, this issue is going to come to a head in the next decade, and people are going to have to swallow some big changes.

This won't be an easy pill for Americans, whose collective sense of entitlement knows no bounds. I anticipate loud protests from Americans when they are asked to give up rapid air travel for the sake of millions of people who are at risk of losing their homes.

The Earth Policy Institute in Washington, DC, calls the evacuees from Hurricane Katrina one of the first waves of "climate refugees." Residents of various islands and communities in the pacific are already having to move to get away from rising sea levels. While "climate refugees" now number "only" in the hundreds of thousands, we could see this figure rise 1000 times larger within our lifetimes.

Comments

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I don't have the vacation time or the personal wealth which would be necessary to take the time off I would need to travel by some other means between NYC and the island of Trinidad, where my sister lives.

See, the way i look at it is, maybe Americans should have more vacation time. The fact that most Americans can afford air travel is probably one of the reasons employers allow less vacation time than in other parts of the developed world.

I doubt that rapid air travel will ever be entirely eliminated. I think though that in the coming decades it will probably become too expensive for most Americans.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

I agree Americans should have more vacation time. Some of my associates in Trinidad were shocked that in a job as mentally taxing as mine, I can only accrue four weeks of leave time per year, and that leave time must be used for vacation, personal days, and sick days, however I need it. My sister and I just had a discussion about that, this morning.

I don't think employers allow less vacation time because most Americans can afford air travel; I think employers are simply stingy and do not want to pay for benefits overall. (The disappearance of pension plans is one part of that monster.) If the price of air travel goes up, I do not see employers increasing vacation time in order to allow people to travel by alternate means, unless it was mandated on a federal level. (An ice cube has a better chance of surviving in the La Brea Tar Pits.) I just see less people able to travel, because their already minimal leave time simply won't accomodate longer travel times by other means.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I don't think employers allow less vacation time because most Americans can afford air travel; I think employers are simply stingy and do not want to pay for benefits overall.

I tend to look at more than clear-cut cause and effect. I agree that rapid travel is not "the reason" Americans have less vacation time, but these are part of the overall pattern. Like the role of the automobile in the suburbanization of American cities. I would say that rapid travel was one of many factors that made it easier for employers to reduce vacation time.

I do agree, though, that rising costs of rapid air travel will not result in more vacation time for Americans. It could be that the age of globetrotting is simply over.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

It could be that the age of globetrotting is simply over.

As xenophobic, separatist, and culturally arrogant as many Americans already are, I would hate to see that happen.

[arcanum-dogma.livejournal.com]

cheap air travel (which is not cheap when you look at the prices elsewhere) really isn't the problem. it's our perverse version of capitalism: consumerism. we work as many hours and multiple jobs because we believe we need to purchase every piece of crap with a killer branding campaign. the corporate leaders understand this and use it to their advantage.

don't want to spend most of your conscious life making someone else rich? don't buy stuff, learn to make it or do without.

BTW: get rid of affordable rapid air travel and most of those climate-refugees become economic hardship refugees as the tourist industry freefalls until only the top-out-of-sights are left as world travelers (i just love writing run-ons with poor punctuation usage)