Let's maintain a little situational awareness here, there's a world outside of aviation after all.
Firstly, aviation isn't being singled out for specialy crew-security style treatment as some breathless postings might suggest, it's simply being included.
1. The Times today (9 September) says the UK Government is now legally required to cut CO2 emissions by 80% on 1990 levels by 2050.
2. The Climate change committee says (also in The Times) that if aviation emissions stay at 2005 levels, the rest of the economy will have to make 90% cuts to achieve the overall 80% target.
3. The aviation target set by the industry itself if to maintain levels at 2005. If it joined everyone else to the 1990 level, it would force a halving of the present number of flights.
4. Passenger numbers 102 million in 1990, 240 in 2007 and on course for 470 in 2030.
Whether or not we believe in man-made global warming, it would probably take the most myopic of us masters of the skies to deny that pollution isn't a bad thing. Instead of pointing fingers and arguing that the cruise ships don't pay their bit, that car manufacturing is being propped up and that the immigrants down the road fart much more than the natives because of that spicy food, perhaps we should buckle down and play our part.
There's no going back. People want something done and little personal cuts won't cut it. We'd probably all agree taxes are necessary, but if left to us to pay or not I doubt we'd be as generous as we're legally required to be. The same with pollution, and I for one agree. If we end up like the dinosaurs, so be it - less pollution is good, global warming or no global warming. Something else better will replace us, and the cars, and the cruise ships - we'd better get used to it.