Quote:
Originally Posted by lokken
release of CO2 at that altitude has the potential to be far more damaging (i have no idea where i've read this or if its true).
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There's
been research on this. Generally accepted values are 2-4 times the CO2 emissions, some people have calculated lower values (eg 1.2 on p4 of that document). Right now, 2 seems to be the most widely accepted.
Planes might be responsible for 35MT directly in CO2e direct terms, but it's likely the warming effect is 70MT.
Planes are already using over half our budget for 2050, and the government expects a doubling-trebling by 2030, and they're supporting expanding airports to reach that. If the government plans to do this
and achieve the climate change bill, then it has to ban the use of fossil fuels except in planes, the production of cement and rearing cows in the UK. They're not going to collapse the economy, so they're throwing away the climate change bill to satisfy the aviation lobby.
Another way of comparing them: a single return flight from Heathrow to NY is responsible for about as much warming as food, or heating, or lighting, or driving, for a whole year.
Gordon Brown has
never seriously intended to do
anything about climate change. I'm voting Tory next election.