Originally Posted by
Donkeygone
I know this is an unpalatable thing to discuss, but we have to consider the environmental aspect of this. Of course it's terrible for everyone who will lose a job, and that may bring much hardship, but the continual talk of the aviation industry 'bouncing back' and perhaps getting sizeable government support is to decry totally the awful environmental mess we were already in, and continue to be in. Aviation as it was 6 weeks ago is absolutely not sustainable environmentally, anymore than it now is economically. We need to face up to this.
I'll bite because I have nothing better to be doing during quarantine. It's widely accepted in the industry that we must do everything we can to reduce our environmental impact. It's even more widely reported in the media, and shouted loudly from the rooftops by every social media user, how bad aviation is for the environment. The issue is, it gets a disproportionate amount of coverage and hate, for the
actualimpact it has on the environment.
Of global CO2 emissions, aviation counts for just 2%.
Road transport is many many times worse (and increasing at a higher rate than aviation), shipping is about as much, too. Transportation accounts for roughly 15% of global CO2, and Aviation is one of the smallest parts of the transportation group - as I say road transport being considerably worse.
Why am I saying all of this?
Yes, I accept aircraft pollute. But I don't accept the hysteria associated with flying, because it's popular to flight shame, if people also don't get hysterical about all the other contributors. The simple fact is the large majority of transportation pollutions (road) can be eliminated by using electric power from a green source. The same can be done for most of the other contributing sectors (energy). It cannot be done for aircraft and likely wont in our lifetimes.
How about we stop the hysteria surrounding Aviation and actually do our own research before posting all over social media how bad flying is.