If humankind is to survive into the next century, something will have to be done about the drastic climate change currently experienced on earth.
Though narrow-minded politicians may find it easy to call such reports a “hoax,” hundreds of eminent scientists are virtually unanimous in urgently drawing attention to that danger.
Other irresponsible people claim that the problem is only for our grandchildren and not for us current humans. Such an argument, of course, is too shameful to be addressed.
And recently, a new contributor to the problem has been identified at conferences around the world: the aviation industry.
Its impact upon climate change is apparently enormous but perhaps reversible.
Turns out that the operation of airplanes is one of the ten major sources of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere.
The alarming total of those emissions—comparable to the emissions of whole large nations—is one of the great surprises of current-day science.
To permit the world to avoid a disastrous increase in temperatures of more than one and a half degrees, which would wreak havoc with the world’s climate, humanity must reduce such emissions by slightly more than 50%.
But this cannot be done if airplanes are operated at their current level. Part of the remedy might be achieved if high-speed trains were substituted for flights.
The statistics have thus far been revealed to the persons who control airline flights by persons begging them to improve airplane engines, to use electricity in place of fuel, or to reduce the number of flights.
Whether airline executives will respond is not yet known. As the climate crisis grows, it may be that airline passengers will need to bring about the pressures required to permit the earth to continue to be a haven for human beings.
