The rich are not “promoting sustainability” as they replace taxis with jets

There has been a rise in concerns from climate scientists that people are abusing access to airplanes and jets over the years as they cause further harm to the planet. This is due to the increased carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere which can be prevented with unneeded aircraft trips.

According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, ‘October 2024 was the second warmest October on record for the globe.’ This can be attributed to the short weekend holidays, the Fifa World Cup, the Olympics, concerts and many other global events.

April 8th 2024, Our World in Data states, ‘Aviation accounts for 2.5% of global CO₂ emissions. But it has contributed around 4% to global warming to date.’

Heathrow Airport, the largest airport in the UK, gained 79.2 million passengers in 2023. ‘That is the third highest year in Heathrow history.’

Credit to Air Charter Service 

The First Airplane was created in 1903 by the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright. It was fuelled by gasoline which harms the environment with nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, benzene, and formaldehyde.

Today, airplanes and jets have evolved and many now are powered by Jet fuel which is less harmful than gasoline and less flammable.

Speaking to Mark Hopkins, Environmental Officer at Birmingham City University, he said, “People look up to a lot of people in the famous eye. You admire them and respect them and want to be like them. And you really don’t have the platform to be promoting sustainability when you yourself are travelling by probably the highest emitting form of transport that’s available to them.

Credit to Air Partner 

“If you were to travel by plane domestically, you emit 246 grams of CO2, an equivalent greenhouse gas per kilometre. You compare that 246 grams flying to 35 kilometres by National rail, 29 grams by tram, and 27 grams by coach, there are much more sustainable forms of transportation that are available to people.

“Rishi Sunak was well documented to be using private helicopters and jets to travel to domestic locations in the United Kingdom, and considering that we are really quite a small island, that in itself is I think unnecessary or I do believe that it is not required to travel by jet.

“To prevent those kinds of flights from happening here at Birmingham City University, we recently introduced a policy that stops people flying domestically. So over the past few years, we’ve had people travel from Birmingham to Edinburgh by plane. I think we’ve even had people travel from Birmingham to Cornwall by plane because it was the cheapest and the quickest.

“So we’ve introduced the policy which prevents that from happening. If you were to do the same around private jets for the super-rich or if you were to introduce a lot of high tariffs with money that you can channel into promoting sustainable transport, you then discourage that unsustainable transport type and encourage more sustainable options.”