Skip to content
Grist home
Support nonprofit news

Articles by Glenn Hurowitz

Glenn Hurowitz is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy.

Featured Article

Just three roundtrip cross-country or trans-Atlantic flights cause almost as much climate pollution as the average American household produces in an entire year. With that in mind, lots of fliers are concerned about the heavy carbon impact of their travel, and want to choose airlines that are at least operating as efficiently as possible.

Eco-conscious travelers may want to take a look at a new a new report by The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), which ranks the efficiency of domestic operations by America’s major largest carriers.

The ranking shows that Alaska Airlines is the industry’s green North Star, using fuel 23 percent more efficiently than American Airlines, which is stuck near the bottom. Here are the full rankings:

This is a great tool for frequent as well as occasional fliers concerned about their ecological footprint. It should also be a red flag for airline investors. The airlines’ single biggest cost is jet fuel – more than salaries, more than health care, and definitely more than plane food – so a failure to use fuel efficiently usually means that the airline isn’t operating as ... Read more

All Articles

  • Europe says its own biofuels policies increase food costs 50%, drive deforestation

    Two new studies that came out in Europe during the last couple of days show that biofuel mandates are causing consumers far more pocketbook pain – and contributing more to deforestation and climate pollution – than even previous studies suggested. The European Union’s own Joint Research Center found that Europe’s biofuels mandates are dramatically driving […]

  • How Europe can help Obama achieve US climate targets

    As the global leader of climate action, European governments want to know how President Obama’s major climate speech affects Europe – and particularly whether the actions he outlined can allow the United States to reach its commitment to reduce emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels (or even exceed that level). The big picture: Obama’s […]

  • The death of ‘sustainability’

    Can destroying a tropical rainforest be “sustainable”? Well, according to a decision taken yesterday by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the major industry-NGO body, this greatest of environmental crimes is now officially “green.” Palm oil plantations have driven the destruction of more than 30,000 square miles of tropical forest in Indonesia and Malaysia […]

  • Obama faces first post-election climate test

    For President Obama to come in and tell them and other Sandy victims that he cares more about the airline lobby than their well-being and the global climate would be an epic disappointment.