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| Tue, 10th Aug 2021 17:31:00 |
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Only immediate action will halt global heating |
The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Major climate changes inevitable and irreversible – IPCC’s starkest warning yet, 9 August) paints a grim picture, with global temperature rises of 1.5C degrees or more beyond pre-industrial levels predicted unless urgent action is taken in the next few decades. The report contains a lot of detail about what this would look like, but it is summarised by Prof Tim Palmer as “hell on earth”.
With such serious danger to be avoided, you would expect that our government would be taking appropriate action to prevent this. Some of the actions it is taking are promising, but its “jet zero” strategy for flying is madness. Its own Climate Change Committee recommends managing passenger numbers in some way to allow only slow growth of about 0.7% per year from 2018 to 2050, as well as investing in aircraft and fuel technology. The jet zero strategy throws away this carefully planned advice, choosing instead to allow airports and airlines to expand as much as they like and hoping for miraculous improvements in technology.
I will be delighted if all the technological fixes proposed become a reality and we can enjoy air travel without damaging our planet, but until those fixes are in place, why are we gambling with our children’s future by allowing passenger numbers to grow unchecked? Why would any government propose something so irresponsible and dangerous? The answer is because it thinks that is what the people, its voters, want. I therefore urge readers to engage with the consultation on the jet zero strategy, which is open until 8 September at www.gov.uk, and say that you value protecting human lives over the unlimited opportunity to travel by air.
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