At present all Britain’s carbon dioxide emissions amount to 2% of the world’s global emissions. Aviation contributes 7.5% of all this country’s emissions – just 0.15% of the global total.

That’s a quotation from an op-ed piece by Douglas Alexander, the UK’s Minister for Transport, referring to the amount of carbon the UK’s aviation produces. Can’t be faulted really; it will grow, but then so will aviation worldwide…

for example, China is building 49 new airports and expanding another 71.

See, he knows his stuff. And he wants to walk the talk too…

That is why I recently called for the Chicago Convention, which regulates international aviation, to be reformed to meet these challenges.

And furthermore…

I believe a finer hour for Britain will be leading the international community in finding a global solution to a global
problem.

Great, Britain saves the world. Or does it?

Read

There are threads missing from this article, which you can read for yourself at The Guardian’s web site .

This is what is known in the trade as Disjointed Thinking or, more correctly, Spinning A Yarn, or more sinisterly, Assuming Your Readership Are Ignorant. Mr Alexander is trying to defend the UK Government’s very weak position on aviation control, compared to its public perception of being a leader in environmental protection. He talks of “calling” for the Chicago Convention to be reformed; but has no idea whether this will successful, nor does he refer to the specific part of the Chicago Convention that is preventing global taxation on fuel (Article 24, from memory). Could the details have slipped his mind, or is he just trying to convince us that the UK actually has any sway over the USA, a myth that was recently put beyond any reasonable doubt by Kendall Myers.

He talks about a “finer hour” for Britain as leading the international community; well, so much for a Community. The same community that likes nothing better than to compete economically for the spoils of our planet, whilst paying lip service to the minority of humans who deeply care for it. The same community that is increasing its reliance on air travel for trade and tourism. The same community that can’t even agree which wars to join in, or stop.

And he completely misses the point about the importance of a national effort in preventing that 0.15% of the global carbon total from growing. This is not a numbers game, it is about leadership – and in leadership you set an example for others to follow. The Cold War ended, not because governments protested the futility of global stalemate, but because a group of people had had enough of repression. The battle for the survival of planetary stability and our own species will not be won by government ministers sitting on their backsides waiting for the nations of the world to come to some agreement; it will be won because someone has put their head above the warm political sea and said “ENOUGH!“.

Keith Farnish
www.theearthblog.org
www.reduce3.com
And Proud Member Of The Sietch