Hey everyone. Steve Milloy here.
Reality is finally beginning to hit the airline industry. Air New Zealand just announced last week that it was abandoning its emissions reductions target for 2030. As it turns out, the only way for airlines to cut their emissions is to fly less and flying less is not very profitable.
Airlines have tried to reduce emissions through carbon offsets and so-called sustainable aviation fuel. Neither will work and that was obviously from the get-go. With respect to carbon offsets, which are usually attempted by paying to plant trees or paying to not to cut forests down -- emissions from jets happen much faster than plants can possibly remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
A commercial jet, for example, emits 53 pounds of carbon dioxide per mile while a mature tree only absorbs 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. Delta Airlines, for example, emits about 27 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. It would take something like 80 million trees growing for 25 years to offset a single year of Delta emissions.
As to so-called sustainable aviation fuel, that is just another term for ethanol, which is less efficient than convention fuel, meaning that emissions actually increase. The claim that biofuels somehow magically offset emissions is without a basis in fact as I just mentioned with respect to carbon offsets. Emissions are not offset in real-time or even any time by any kind of plant growth. So-called sustainable aviation fuel is just pointlessly expensive.
Finally, some are trying to develop battery-powered aircraft. And while that may possible on a very small scale - meaning tiny and lightweight aircraft -- the notion of large battery-powered passenger flights is just lunacy. The batteries for a 747, for example, would weigh 18 times more than a fully-loaded and fueled plane. It would never get off the ground.
Again, the bottom line is that the only way for airlines to cut emissions is to fly less. That is why France, for example, has banned short-hop flights that can, instead, be made by train. Congratulations to Air New Zealand for acknowledging physical reality by dumping its ridiculous emissions reductions targets.
And, of course, it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, there is no scientific evidence that emissions are warming or changing the weather or climate. So sweating emissions cuts in the first place is much expensive ado about nothing.
Stay up with the latest on the climate hoax. Follow me on X @JunkScience and at my web site JunkScience.com. Thanks for watching.
25 окт 2024
