British enviros curb flying to protest airplane emissions
A growing number of British enviros are quitting or cutting back on air travel, resisting the siren song of low-fare, no-frills airlines. “I just realized that all my other efforts to be green — recycling, insulating the house, not driving a giant 4×4 — would be totally wiped out by a couple of holidays by air,” said Michael Gibson, one participant in this fledgling movement. A round-trip flight from the U.K. to Florida produces about as much CO2 as a year’s worth of driving by the average Brit, and the number of such flights is expected to soar over the coming years: The British government forecasts that more than twice as many people will use the nation’s airports by 2030 as do now. Flight abstainers are launching a website next month that will encourage people to pledge to cut back on or refrain from flying. The activists are also pressuring the European Union to tax airplane fuel, which would raise the price of flying and thus tamp down demand.
