Let's take a step back for a minute:
Fact - temperatures are rising
This is an issue we can't ignore because sooner or later we'll get screwed with another New Orleans. Hell, my home county in the UK at barely above sea level. Temperatures go up, sea levels rise, people displace.
Fact - we're running out of fossil fuels
We're looking toward new oil and gas fields in harder to reach places. Sakhalin Island? We didn't have the technology to get the gas out of the ground twenty years ago. Now we're being forced to work harder to get the resources we need.
Fact - our politicians appear to be hijacking the environmental agenda
Here in the UK we've had few new roads, a 40% increase in traffic and fuel prices have nearly doubled in ten years. Most of it due to tax. Tony Blair wants Britain to lead the way in reducing carbon emissions - fine, except for one thing. He's {bleep}ting us.
I asked the Minister for Climate Change Elliot Morely why air travel is being encouraged while car use is being discouraged and he confirmed that 10% - yes 10% of carbon emissions are from cars:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4856386.stmTurns out, that this figure includes not only cars, but busses, trains and lorries.
More worryingly, aircraft on long haul flights which enter our airspace or are bound for non-EU countries aren't even included in "official" stats for air industry carbon emissions (5% and climbing rapidly - and that's just the official figures which exclude the examples I've given. And Blair wants more airports!).
As long as politicians hijack climate change for the purpose of revenue raising and massage statistics, the general public won't take the message seriously.
Fact - We have stringent carbon emission targets to meet
Yep, again the powers that are are going to screw us. They
want air travel to grow, as it encourages trade and foreign revenues to contribute to our economies. The private individual is going to subsidize the cost of the growth.
In summary, I've no doubt that we need to be very concerned about climate change and also the useage of fossil fuels. However, I do not believe we're going about it in the right way. We need more investment in cleaner and more reliable public transport - we've had it in the UK - but private rail companies are hiking costs in line with fuel prices for the benefit of shareholders. Why?
We need rapid research of renewable energy sources. Why is the UK government not significantly increasing it's funding into nuclear fusion research?
