In a previous post I grandiloquently claimed that “we will have to find Arctic meltwater lapping at our doorsteps before we jettison the freedom [of cheap air travel]”. Alas it’s not just stag parties jetting off to Prague or the bourgeoisie retreating to their weekend g�tes that are to blame. Even people who are paid to care about the environment seem to be culpable.
The London Times reports:
Among those with the highest air miles is Bob Napier, chief executive of WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund, one of the best-known environment groups. In the past 12 months he has visited Spitsbergen, Borneo, Washington, Geneva, and Beijing on business trips and taken a holiday in the Falklands, generating more than 11 tons of carbon dioxide.
A typical British household creates about six tons of CO2 a year.
Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, flew to Malaysia, South Africa, and Amsterdam on business and took his family on holiday to Slovakia in the past year. This weekend he is on a business trip to Nigeria. His trips are estimated to have generated at least eight tons of CO2.
�This is the dilemma faced by all international organisations, including green ones,� said Juniper. �We do all we can to cut travel but we need to do some flying to make decisions.�
In terms of excuses, Juniper’s is up there with those offered by suburban mommies who block narrow city streets with their f***-you Volkswagen Touaregs: “It’s the only practical thing for a family the size of ours.”
Incidentally, on the subject of air travel, the hand-wringing over Ryanair’s bid for Aer Lingus has been quite emetic. One letter writer in the Irish Times, as though auditioning for the Perils of Pauline, shrieked that the prospect of a Ryanair takeover sent shivers down their spine. Pass the smelling salts.
One wonders whether these economic patriots remember the good old days–back in the 1980s when Aer Lingus protected an Irish person’s right to fly to London? But back then, unless you had friends willing to “loan” you a couple of grand if you looked down in the mouth, you had to take the bloody ferry! This was because the tacit policy of our precious strategic resource was–as reported in the IT‘s Weekend supplement–to charge whatever they could get away with.