More misconceptions and media/organisation-spun half truths seems to be at work with the issue of expanding London Heathrow again with recent actions by the misguided public.
They don't seem to understand the science behind the issues at hand. Globally the aviation industry contributes to 3-4% of greenhouse gas emissions - as recognised by the vast majority of scientific studies. Other transportation contributes to 15%. If the people really want to reduce climate change and save the Earth, they really ought to target the main contributors. Chances are people drove to these "anti-Heathrow" events. If they had stayed home and put pressure on automotive manufacturers to speed up the development of truly green cars their effect on minimising climate change would be far greater!
It is well known that in fact the majority of greenhouse gas emission for aviation comes from airliners queuing up on taxi-ways and running their engines inefficiently whilst on the ground. As we all know Heathrow currently operates at maximum capacity with planes often having to queue for long periods on the taxi-ways. An extra runway would reduce the time for each flight from gate to takeoff, as planes have to queue-up less, thereby reducing their impact on the environment. Expanding Heathrow is in fact beneficial to the environment!
Just as another example, tree-logging is known to produce more than 10 times the greenhouse gas emissions globally as compared to the impact from the aviation industry. Just because it is not as visible as planes flying over our skies and leaving contrails doesn't mean it has less of an impact to the environment. Climate activists and people who truly cares about the environment and the Earth should really target the primary causes of climate change in order to bring about the greatest chance in securing a brighter future for generations to come.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
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