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American Airlines, United Airlines, and the Airlines for America trade association gave up on any further legal challenge to the EU ETS, the European law that would make airlines operating in Europe pay for the pollution they emit. This comes shortly after the highest court in Europe rejected their challenge to the law. A trans-Atlantic team of … Continue reading
Five American Nobel Prize winning economists wrote a letter to President Obama this week urging him to drop his opposition to EU policies that would charge airlines for climate pollution. The letter will be delivered on Wednesday, according to Reuters. The letter written by the Nobel Prize winners and 21 other American economists, reads in part: … Continue reading
The aviation industry claims that it’s going green—but that’s not what the data shows. New research by David Lee, co-author of the recent UN Environment Program report “Bridging the Gap,” shows that the global aviation industry is rapidly increasing its contributions to global warming. According to David Lee, aviation emissions have grown over 11% between 2005 and … Continue reading
Aviation and climate change is a critical part of the title story in award-winning British writer Helen Simpson‘s new short story collection In-Flight Entertainment. Simpson is interviewed by the Paris Review, where she describes the book as her “climate-change suite. Per the publisher: “And in the title story, two men on a flight from London … Continue reading
Kai is an inspiration to me. He’s a former airline pilot who loved his work, but could no longer bring himself to participate after discovering the global environmental impacts of his industry. Kai and his partner Sheila have taken steps to simplify their lives and reduce their impact on the Earth, and are currently in the … Continue reading
Washington State’s King County (encompassing Seattle) just released their latest report on local climate emissions. The analysis, developed by the Stockholm Environment Institute and others, tracks both local emissions as well as emissions associated with the production of goods or services imported into the region. According to the report, air transportation constitutes 9% of King County’s total … Continue reading
The lead in air surrounding airports can be inhaled directly, or the lead may be ingested by children after it settles into soil or dust. The EPA estimates that 3 million American children go to school within 1 km (0.6 miles) of airports where they may be exposed to lead. “[T]he reality is that exposure to aviation … Continue reading
New wording in Canada’s Aeronautics Act might leave some Canadians unable to fly. Under the new rules, airlines aren’t allowed to transport passengers unless they “appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents”—which may subject transgender, intersex, or other gender non-confirming Canadians to increased scrutiny, potentially being effectively barred from … Continue reading
After the short-sighted US Congressional attack on the European aviation cap and trade program, it’s exciting to see the British Parliament come back with a muscular response. According to Bloomberg: “Airlines using U.K. airspace should be grounded if they refuse to comply with the European Union’s greenhouse-gas emissions-trading system, according to a panel of lawmakers. Any … Continue reading
Under California’s cap and trade program, money collected by the state from climate polluters need to be reinvested in emissions-reducing projects. Governor Jerry Brown‘s made the connection between transportation projects and the climate, and suggested using cap and trade revenues to fund the California High Speed Rail project—a smart financing idea that implicitly acknowledges the … Continue reading
Aviation Justice 