The flight shaming movement has certainly gained momentum thanks to climate activists like Greta Thunberg, but the growing resistance to flying is illogical when you look at the evidence. The premise of flight shame is basically: flying is bad for the climate, so if you care about planet Earth, do not fly. You should principally feel shame for flying due to your carbon footprint. But how bad is flying really and is it right to shame others for flying due to their personal carbon footprint? The coronavirus outbreak has undoubtedly done a lot for the cause, grounding thousands of aircraft and sending passenger numbers tumbling. Worldwide air traffic fell dramatically from late March, 2020. What Covid-19 and second or subsequent waves mean for the future of air travel is for another day. What I want to focus on here is the concept of flight shaming and the real impact of air travel. Is the argument for shaming commercial flights justifiable because of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and climate concerns? Is the airline industry being disproportionately attacked when it comes to their emissions? A subsequent article will expand on topics mentioned here to avoid “information overload”. This is a condensed overview of the topic and a starting point for more in-depth research on CO2, global warming, and the climate change agenda. Okay, fasten your seat belts, turbulence ahead.
Is Flying Really That Bad?
Air travel is responsible for about 2.5% of the world’s human emissions of CO2. That is a drop in the ocean compared to other sectors such as ground transportation, electricity and heat production, manufacturing, and construction. Flying is clearly not the worst offender out there in terms of total carbon emissions. Tropical deforestation currently accounts for 8% of the world’s annual CO2 emissions (human), so should we not focus on protecting tropical forests if we are genuinely concerned about CO2 levels and the environment? Trees naturally capture and sequester atmospheric carbon as they grow. It is crazy that tropical forest loss receives less attention than the aviation industry. The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual CO2 emissions from human sources according to the United Nations (UN), so even if we all stopped flying tomorrow, this would have practically no impact on total global CO2 emissions.
[Interesting Read]
