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Old 9th Sep 2009, 20:03
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Caudillo
 
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The Times. Which I no longer have to hand but it said that it was part of the deal for the third runway at Heathrow (struck me as odd too). Googling "third runway heathrow 2005 emissions" brings up a raft of results - this is from the Evening Standard today:

"a letter to Transport Secretary Lord Adonis and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband, the committee says the aviation industry will have to cut emissions to 2005 levels by 2050."

So better off than the 1990 level for everyone else, and avoids the 50% cut now.

Ford and GM aren't blamed for the CO2, users are penalised or incentivised. Furthermore, carmakers in response to popular and political pressure are slowly but surely turning their attention to a shift away from the traditional petrol internal-combustion engine. Soon in the next year or so we'll see the first mass-produced electric cars, albeit a very modest mass-production compared to what we have now.

McDonalds took a lot of flak for making everybody fat, so they've had to make some sort of nod towards healthier eating. Mostly window-dressing yes, but they've certainly shifted some emphasis away from the burgers and fries.

Airlines? Well, you've got the rapacious growth of low-cost carriers who scream blue murder if an airport so much as dares charge a Pound for passenger drop-off by car (see, we are environmentally friendly after all). Offering more of the same, more price-wars, more frequencies, more exponential growth.

The truth is, it's the developed world that has polluted and we're reining it in. The developing world is where the next load of soot is coming from - but it doesn't stop us cutting ours and leading by example. Britain was the first to outlaw slavery, and turned to catching slavers. I'll bet people then thought we were giving others a free ride by getting out of the game but isn't it now something in which to have some (reluctant) pride?
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