Can Air Travel be Green?
Could Airships be an answer?
Jet travel results in massive emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that accelerate global warming. Flying is one of the worst polluters of all yet not enough is said about it. The Alternet article Air Travel is Killing the Planet is a great article to learn about how destructive air travel is to the environment. The article states “We could close every factory, lock away every car and turn off every light in the country, but it won’t halt global warming if we carry on taking planes as often as we do.”
Needless to say, there is virtually no political will for any serious reduction of air travel. Even Al Gore flies around the world, many times in a private jet, to give his presentations on global warming. Seems to me that we have all grown so reliant on the speed and convenience of air travel that we give it a pass, despite its significant role in climate change.
Not to say there aren’t people thinking about the issue. Richard Branson, Virgin CEO, has started a new company called Virgin Fuels that is looking for ways to create biofuel for jets. He plans on investing $1 billion in alternative fuels over the next four years, and possibly commercial jet engines within five years. A billion dollars might actually come up with something but right now it seems a long way off.
Another possible solution is “blended wing bodies” airplanes in which seat passengers in enlarged wings. Some claim it could possibly reduce fuel use by 20-30 percent.
Another possibilty is the remotely controlled solar powered aircraft such as the Pathfinder and Helios aircraft being developed by Nasa, perhaps someday they could be made to power planes large enough to hold cargo and passengers.
However, it seems actual development is quite a long ways off and in the case of the blended wing crafts, still would result in significant greenhouse gas emissions. George Monbiot states in his excellent “Flying Into Trouble” The Nation article (subscription required) “the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change discovered, “there would not appear to be any practical alternatives to kerosene-based fuels for commercial jet aircraft for the next several decades.” He points out that many other alternative means of crossing the oceans, like ocean liners, may result in even more pollution.
Airships could be one possible clean way to travel by air, but with its slow speeds, poor navigation in winds, and many other limitations would not offer any serious solutions at this date. Daniel Geery’s videos shows what one guy very cheaply has come up with an awesome solution - a solar powered, speedy blimp which has ability to quickly maneuver. What if we could invest a few billion dollars instead of a several hundreds for a model like this guy, in making a faster and better blimp that could be used for cargo transport and possibly even transporting large groups of people. Perhaps I am overly romantic about the notion of Airship travel, but to my eye it seems the best direction to go for air travel when it isn’t essential to go jet speeds. When we talk about the absolute need to meet crucial business deadlines and other critical missions requiring us to travel at 500 mph it seems short sighted if by doing so we hasten the ruin of civilization.
Many people who are concerned about the environment and global warming turn to getting carbon credits. Al Gore told National Geographic Traveler magazine, “I buy offsets for every bit of it… My wife and I put money into a project in India that substitutes highly efficient solar units at $300 a pop for very dirty kerosene burners, which verifiably reduces a lot of C02.” However, many environmentalists object to this sort of rationalization. In this recent New York Times article “Carbon-Neutral Is Hip, but Is It Green?” says: “The worst of the carbon-offset programs resemble the Catholic Church’s sale of indulgences back before the Reformation,” said Denis Hayes, the president of the Bullitt Foundation, an environmental grant-making group. “Instead of reducing their carbon footprints, people take private jets and stretch limos, and then think they can buy an indulgence to forgive their sins.”
For right now, the greenest and perhaps best solution is to dramatically reduce air travel. However, that might prove to be the hardest solution of all. Many or most people see fast air travel as a basic right, traveling across a continent in a few hours, getting fresh produce from 3,000 miles away on a daily basis, getting packages delivered overnight, and on and on. I suspect the only way we can ever get the political will to reduce air travel is by having a few more disasters on the level of Hurricane Katrina that are clearly tied to global warming. Maybe then more businesses and people will come around to thinking about using alternatives to air travel such as video conferencing and accepting and possibly even enjoying slower travel.
