To fly or not to fly?
It is ethical to fly any more? On the one hand we all want to travel and see the world. On the other, we don’t want to destroy it in the process. Airlines are planting trees to counterbalance emissions. A huge number of trees - to offset a flight from London to New York means planting 80 saplings. And it’s heartening that airlines are also investing heavily in offset technology. United Airlines has rolled out a multi-million dollar investment in atmospheric carbon capture technology, for example.
But we shouldn’t get too carried away (if you’ll excuse the pun). Based on the latest figures, flights are responsible for a mere 2.4% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. That is far lower than agriculture, for example. It is so low it gets lost in the margin of error for global emissions estimates, which is 4% to 5% either way. Nevertheless, all carbon emissions are undesirable and it has to be a good approach to avoid flying where you can. If it is unavoidable, do your homework on airlines and choose the ones who are offsetting most. So, like many ethical questions, there’s no correct answer here, but please keep the environment firmly in mind when considering whether to fly.