Though air travel is more popular than ever, the vast majority of people in the world have never been on a plane. As that dynamic slowly changes, the environment stands to suffer. Is flying less the only solution?
https://www.dw.com/en/to-fly-or-not-to-fly-the-environmental-cost-of-air-travel/a-42090155
As little as 3 percent of the global population flew in 2017, and at most, only about 18 percent have ever done so. But things are changing.
New tech can’t solve everything
„I think that essentially we need price hikes,“ he says. „We did interviews with industry leaders a few months ago and many of them agreed, secretly — they were anonymous interviews — that if we don’t have a major price hike for fossil fuels, then there is no way alternative fuels could ever make it.“
Daniel Mittler, political director of environmental NGO Greenpeace, agrees that fossil fuels need to be more expensive. „The first step is to end all fossil fuel subsidies, including those going to aviation and to properly tax the aviation industry,“ he told DW.
For Goater, that is not realistic. „Fuel is already a significant proportion of an airline’s costs,“ he says. „Believe me, if we could fly without oil we would.“
