EU proposes CO2 emission quotas for airlines discusses a proposal that airlines be required to reduce their Carbon-Dioxide (CO2) emissions. Airlines are obviously big contributors, especially as all their emissions happen right up in the upper atmosphere in the first place. However they were left out of previous greenhouse gas agreements.
Of course the airlines are already objecting loudly.
I think the point really has to be that when we do something we have to consider the side effects of that action. Yeah it's real convenient to fly coast to coast in a couple hours, but what of the emissions that come from that flight, and what of the opportunity cost of burning that oil?
The airlines do have some ready avenues for reducing their emissions even if they cannot change anything about the aircraft. What of all the ground vehicles? Next time you board an airplane pay attention to the ground vehicles. All of them operate over short distances and could easily be electrically driven. In some cases one could easily envision cables directly from the building to the vehicle which directly power the vehicle without requiring a battery pack.
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