This week a small protest group plans to set up camp at Heathrow Airport to make hay with a campaign it calls “Plane Stupid,” which demands “airport expansion plans [be] scrapped, a tax on aviation fuel and an end to short-haul flights.” Aviation generates about two to three percent of man-made carbon-dioxide, by most estimates. But its contribution to global warming could be more severe. Jet engines also pump out nitrogen oxides, soot and water vapor at high altitudes. Some environmental groups believe the solution is to curtail unnecessary flying with steep fuel taxes. Plane makers counter that commercial aircraft are nearly one-third more fuel efficient than they were 40 years ago. Airlines are putting intense pressure on aircraft engineers to make them even more fuel efficient. But additional fuel savings will be small. Adding runways to congested airports reduces the amount of time airplanes spend in holding patterns to land. And direct flights, instead of hub-based flights that require multiple fuel-guzzling takeoffs, cut emissions. But environmentalists have a point as well. The sheer volume of air traffic world wide is growing exponentially. Added fuel taxes will cut at least some discretionary travel.
Source: The Economist
