| Aviation accounts for 1.9% of global greenhouse gas emissions [0]. If we're going to take a sober look at where to focus our efforts, this: "Global aviation’s contribution to the climate crisis was growing fast before the Covid-19 pandemic, with emissions jumping by 32% from 2013-18" Should be: "Global aviation’s contribution to the climate crisis was growing fast before the Covid-19 pandemic. Aviation's contribution to global CO2 emissions rose from 1.3% to 1.9% from 2013-18" But the latter doesn't attract clicks so much. Transportation overall accounts for 28% of greenhouse gas emissions [1]. That's the story that matters. There's certainly a point here about wealthy nations and wealthy people being responsible for a lion's share of the problem, but really, everyone knows that. This article, and indeed the linked paper [2] gloss over the relative size of the aviation problem. [0] https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-aviation [1] https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emis... [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095937802... |
Aviation is also fairly unique in that we don't know how to make it climate neutral. Even burning synfuel made from renewables won't be enough, because adding emissions higher in the atmosphere has a stronger warming effect. And we just don't know how to make all-electric long distance planes yet.