Salon :: Tech & Business

Ask the pilot: One airline is taking climate change very seriously. Will others follow suit? Plus: What to do with all that on-board trash?

Last week <a href="http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2008/02/22/askthepilot265/">we looked at</a> the fact and fallacy of aircraft emissions and their effect on the environment. In summary, commercial planes account for only about 5 percent of the world's total greenhouse gas pollutants, and are a lot more fuel-efficient than people give them credit for. However, the rapid growth of civil aviation will drastically increase the industry's contributions of climate-changing emissions; by the middle of the century, assuming carbon emissions from other sources are curtailed, aviation could be the single biggest contributor to <a href="http://dir.salon.com/topics/climate_change/">climate change.</a> <P>First, the obvious question: The efficiency of modern engines notwithstanding, considering that the <a href="http://dir.salon.com/topics/airlines/">airlines</a> are so beholden to oil prices, why has there not been a stronger push for alternative fuels or new propulsion systems? <p>...</p><img src="http://feeds.salon.com/~r/salon/tech/~4/243078432" height="1" width="1"/>

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