In an article published last week in The Washington Post, journalist JD Shadel takes a look at the carbon offsets that airlines offer. Shadel starts with Lufthansa. The German airline launched its “Green Fares” earlier this year. Under this deal, passengers have the option of paying more while Lufthansa claims it will use the extra money to reduce its emissions. 20% of the reduction comes from using sustainable aviation fuels and 80% from buying carbon offsets.
Disclosure: I am 76 years old and never been on a plane, so perhaps I take a dim view of flying, literally putting yourself above Nature?
Several issues: Even if there were such a thing as “sustainable fuels,: at this late stage in the game, all needless burning must STOP.
That is an excellent comparison: paying someone to go to the gym for you!
Even the statement that offsets “…just trade where the emissions happen” is dubious because that would assume that emissions “unhappen” at the REDD+ location, when in fact, even before industrialization, all plant life was already fully involved with balancing planetary CO2 levels.
To get an overview of the excessive flying in N. America and Europe, look at a satellite view of the contrails, it is totally disgusting. Imagine a Clear Sky with none of this flying going on.
And “we” learned nothing from the pandemic about the easy spread of viruses from one place to another?
Avoiding ALL flying is the simplest personal emissions reduction possible. Stay grounded!
Thank you, great article!
Disclosure: I am 76 years old and never been on a plane, so perhaps I take a dim view of flying, literally putting yourself above Nature?
Several issues: Even if there were such a thing as “sustainable fuels,: at this late stage in the game, all needless burning must STOP.
That is an excellent comparison: paying someone to go to the gym for you!
Even the statement that offsets “…just trade where the emissions happen” is dubious because that would assume that emissions “unhappen” at the REDD+ location, when in fact, even before industrialization, all plant life was already fully involved with balancing planetary CO2 levels.
To get an overview of the excessive flying in N. America and Europe, look at a satellite view of the contrails, it is totally disgusting. Imagine a Clear Sky with none of this flying going on.
And “we” learned nothing from the pandemic about the easy spread of viruses from one place to another?
Avoiding ALL flying is the simplest personal emissions reduction possible. Stay grounded!