Is QANTAS setting a good example?
Written by Ben Boyang
16/10/24 300 words Ben Laycock
The group Climate Integrity has asked the ACCC to investigate Qantas for alleged green-washing.
Qantas is not sustainable, quite the opposite. *
They are introducing cabins with beds in planes, an extravagant luxury. Emissions will sky-rocket. Qantas is also aggressively encouraging us to indulge in ever more air travel. Meanwhile they are doing nothing to explore alternative fuels.
The world became fully aware of global warming way back in 1988, when Jim Henson from N.A.S.A., told the U.S. congress that the heat wave they were enduring was partly caused by humans.
His words ‘went viral.’ From that day onward, the world has never been the same. Since that time, over a generation ago, the energy efficiency of our airplanes has doubled, but our air travel has quadrupled. So our emissions from air travel are twice as bad! Bare in mind that we have pretty well made all the efficiency gains we can, until we start using alternative fuels, and Qantas has put that one in the ‘too hard basket.’
Airplanes burning fossil fuel adds about 2.5% to global CO2, plus another 1.5% from other effects, like water vapor from the exhaust, adding about 4% to global heating overall.
10% of the world catch airplanes, mainly the richest 10%.
If everyone in the world caught airplanes at the rate we do, emissions from air travel would jump a whopping 40%.
As we reduce our emissions in other sectors, whilst continuing to increase air travel, it will soon come to take up over half our emissions.
Bare in mind that the vast bulk of air travel is classed as discretionary spending, i.e., completely unnecessary, save for the need to assuage our boredom! Every time we decide to hop on a plane to some exotic location, we are choosing indulgence and pleasure over climate.
*All stats gleaned from Our World in Data – Aviation Emissions
Further reading…
https://binsblog.org/2024/09/30/why-our-rulers-like-to-burn-fossil-fuels/
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