Is Flying an Unethical Choice?

Since the 1960s, when cheaper package holidays became a reality for ordinary people in the UK, the thirst to travel and see exotic places and have holidays all over the world has grown. From the 1990s onwards, new airlines opened up offering cheap, no-frills deals, enabling us to travel to Europe and beyond, sometimes for only a few pounds.

For some time now, experts and environmentalists have been warning that air travel on this scale, purely for relaxation and entertainment is simply not sustainable. As fuel costs are increasing due to the recent hike in oil prices, and with the Icelandic volcano ash cloud scare in the late spring of 2010, should be we asking if we really need so much air travel?

Costs of Air Travel

The financial costs of getting on a plane may still be relatively low, even though there have been some price increases during the last few years. Competition is still high, and many companies are buying large numbers of seats for package holidays and demand here is also still good. However, the costs for the environment are spiraling out of control. In 1990, before the massive increase in cheap air tickets came from Flybe, BMI Baby, EasyJet and others, the UK emitted just under 5 million tons of carbon because of air flights in and out of British airspace. Just ten years later, this had almost doubled to just under 9 million tons and air transport is increasing year on year. By 2030, we could be emitting nearly 18 million tons of carbon dioxide just through air travel.

Environmentalists stress that the emission levels are shocking enough but we must also consider that the emissions from aircraft in flight go straight into the stratosphere, the part of the atmosphere where greenhouse gases have their greatest effect on global warming and climate change. It is estimated that direct emission into the higher layers of the atmosphere have double the effect of the same emissions released at ground level from cars and buses.

Government Targets on Emissions

The scale of this increase is phenomenal and completely at odds with the UK’s targets to reduce carbon emissions in line with the rest of Europe. Every country in the EU, along with many other countries in the world, has agreed to cut emissions to target levels by 2050. Unfortunately, we are not making the progress required to meet this target, even though a massive program of building wind turbines both onshore and offshore is in progress.

The figures from the projected emissions from air travel indicated that by 2030, almost 50% of our entire carbon emissions will be due to air travel – around 44.3 million tons. If this continues to increase at the same rate, there is no way that we can increase our power generation from sustainable and renewable sources at a fast enough rate to compensate.

Impact on Lifestyle

Eventually, it may be that the government introduces more restrictions or air travel, or increases taxation on air travel to make it much more expensive, which will limit the amount of air travel that is possible. We simply won’t be able to afford to fly as much as we do at the moment.

But there is a great onus on the individual to make personal choices for the good of the environment and perhaps we all need to start questioning whether we need to fly abroad quite so often and if such long-haul destinations are an ethical choice. For a couple of generations, people in the UK have enjoyed air travel and journeys to destinations that no others have. In the future, we just might have to accept that this was a temporary blip and that the world will get larger, rather than smaller, once again.

Our Facebook Fan Page

Why not join the EnergySavingSecrets Fan Page so we can keep you up to speed with our thoughts and maybe you can share yours or ask a question (there's a join button up on the left!)...