One of the biggest contributors to climate change is the aviation industry… but stopping carbon dioxide gettng into the atmosphere does NOT mean giving up all air travel.
At the most it means accepting travelling directly between places at about 120 miles per hour instead of 500….
All we need to do is to create some decent airships – you know – the ligher than air ones. Except this time we make their lift come from an INNERT gas like helium – NOT highly inflammable hydrogen. Then we make their energy come from solar panels that cover them all over, and green electricity that charges their batteries when they are at rest – and maybe we use hydrogen as a fuel IF we can make it safe.
These things are about a billion times safer than aircraft: can you imagine one of them crashing? – it would go something like this: “Ladies and gentlemen; we have just suffered catastrophic engine fires in all 8 engines and as a result we are totally without power. We will start to drag along the ground in about 5 hours; if you want to get off before then you can parachute to the ground. If you have never parachuted before then wee have a one hour course…..”
These things are inherently safe – as well as clean. Can you imagine one of those hi-jacker bigots trying to crash one of THESE into the World Trade Center?! – it would’ve BOUNCED!
Of course – to get it accepted you need to change peoples attitudes: the so called “free market” t hat means that people do not pay an accurate cost for the damage they cause to the environment means that people now expect and demand 500 mile per hour transport. So: you make them pay a tax that totally covers the damage they cause and allows their carbon to offset the damage. This means that any high flying business person who genuinely DOES need to be there tomorrow still can be – and everyone else gets to fly directly from city centre to city centre at a height that means you can see what is going on on the ground and in an environment that is NOT like a cattle truck.
All it takes is some political will power to make the air travel industry pay a realistic price for the damage they cause – and a visionary to implement the green powered airship company….