By Sharmin Ahammad
Most scientists agree that air travel is one of the main causes of climate change. The fact is that aircraft spew out vast quantities of damaging carbon. But never mind the facts – the aviation industry has embarked on its own bizarre campaign of greenwashing. Here's what airlines claim they are doing to save the planet...
Turning the heat on cars
Jet aircraft may be damaging to the environment but not – according to some airlines – as damaging as cars. British Airways states that “worldwide aviation accounts for some 2% of global CO2 emissions”, which “is a small fraction” compared to “road transport [that] generates six times as much.” Easyjet declares that each car passenger emits 164g of carbon per kilometre whereas flying on an Easyjet aircraft creates a mere 95.7g. This is misleading, according to the Aviation Environment Federation. It says British Airways and Easyjet neglect to mention that "a return flight to New York for one person would produce about the same climate effect as one year's motoring in an average UK car".
Getting passengers off public transport
Now that cars are the new evil, what is the best way of dealing with them? Offer your own car service, of course. In 2009, Heathrow Airport teamed up with Green Tomato Cars to offer customers a door-to-airport service using hybrid car technologies. Of course, this doesn't compensate for the vast quantities of damaging emissions from the thousands of aircraft that use Heathrow every day (nor does it help to ease the horrendous traffic problems around the airport). But if it gives passengers a warm glow and an excuse for not using public transport, that's fine. Isn't it?
Investing in failed eco-technologies
Sir Richard Branson has been exploring ways to make his airline, Virgin Atlantic, more "green". One was to replace conventional aviation fuel with coconut oil. In 2008, he flew a Boeing 747 from London to Amsterdam with one engine running on the new oil. But the idea never took off when it became clear that there are not enough coconuts in the world to supply fuel for even a single airline. Branson turned instead to that other eco-craze: biofuels. Unfortunately, in countries such as Cambodia and the Philippines the use of biofuels has been shown to worsen food shortages as land previously used for farming is used to produce fuel for cars and planes. Another bright idea from Sir Richard!
In addition to starving the world's poor and catalysing geopolitical turmoil, biofuels don't even reduce carbon. On the contrary, they can
actually double the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere compared to traditional fossil fuels. Mass deforestation and destruction of peat lands means that the carbon saved by using biofuels is lost in their production.
But the buzz around biofuels continues as big business continues to invest billions in agro-technologies. In April-June 2009, the National Biodiesal Board spent $235,000 on lobbying Congress in the States, and the US Department of Energy announced a $76.3 million contract with POET, a cellulosic ethanol producer. For more about the damage caused by biofuels, see this article in Time Magazine.
Justifying bad service
Ryanair and Easyjet pride themselves on being “no frills” airlines, so much so that any discomfort a customer might experience is presented as a noble sacrifice to the environmental cause. For instance, Ryanair does not offer free meals, drinks or newspapers to passengers and Easyjet claims that “by not offering free food, Easyjet eliminates meals that people do not want”. The seating configuration of Easyjet aircraft is aimed at reducing “the space and weight inside the plane devoted to galleys, lavatories and storage” in order to make the plane more efficient and less carbon-intensive. So remember, the next time you've got no legroom or a bag that doesn’t fit into its allocated space, it’s not because your budget airline is offering bad service – it’s saving the world!
Diverting attention
To divert attention away from their carbon-guzzling businesses, airlines and airports are loudly bleating about their participation in other "green" schemes. For example, British Airways funds a bio-diversity project at Harmondsworth, a 240-acre park on the outskirts of London that used to be a landfill. Gatwick Airport offers a tree-planting scheme in which every person that books via their Gatwick "Green" parking brand will have a new tree planted on their behalf. Liverpool John Lennon airport has invested in wind farms. Perhaps they think that by shouting "Look! A pretty forest!" no one will realise they are part of a business that is creating cataclysmic ecological damage across the globe.
Flights? What flights?
Airlines proudly boast about their green initiatives – everything from staff consumption of paper to the use of energy efficient technology – but fail to address the main problem, that they offer flights. British Airways aims “to have zero waste to landfill by 2010 across the UK” through recycling schemes. A good move, but a drop in the ocean compared to the climate damage inflicted by flights. Easyjet brags about how it is a "ticketless" airline (as if customers don’t have printers), and has an almost zero paper office policy. Yippee!