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The True Cost of Flying |
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By Julio Godoy*
Hundreds
of flights by subsidized airlines in Europe are endangering the
global climate and the ozone layer. For now, they fly free of environmental
regulations.
PARIS - The European boom in ''low-cost'' airlines,
fueled by tax incentives, is increasing the level of toxic gases
in the atmosphere and displacing less polluting and more efficient
means of transportation for shorter distances, like trains.
Gisela B. is a passionate environmentalist. On the roof of her house
in the northern German city of Bremen she has installed solar panels
to generate electricity, she doesn't own a car, and she saves water
and energy in any way she can.
But when it comes to travel outside Germany, even though she is
aware of the serious impacts of air transport on the climate, she
doesn't hesitate to use one of the airlines that offer international
flights at prices as low as one dollar.
These airlines -- referred to as ''low-cost'' but which have devastating
environmental costs -- have proliferated in recent years in the
United States and Europe, despite the decline in air travel resulting
from international terrorism incidents, such as the Sep. 11, 2001
attacks in New York and Washington.
In Germany alone there are more than 10 commercial airlines that
offer flights between the country's major cities and to tourist
destinations like the French Riviera or Spain's Majorca and Costa
del Sol at ridiculously low prices.
For a weekend on the French Mediterranean coast, for example, Gisela
can fly from Berlin, Cologne or Frankfurt, on any one of at least
10 airlines, for less than 20 dollars round trip.
''I shouldn't fly because of the environmental effects of the aircraft,''
Gisela B. admitted in a conversation with Tierramérica. ''But I
can't fight the temptation of such low prices.''
European airlines, like Easyjet, Ryanair and Germanwings, can afford
the low airfares because of generous subsidies from national governments,
which do not tax jet fuel, the only tax-free fuel in the world.
In addition, commercial aviation does not have to pay the value-added
tax that is applied to all other commercial transactions.
The local governments, meanwhile, exempt the ''low-cost'' airlines
from other taxes in order to attract them to their smaller airports,
which fell into disuse after the military presence declined with
the end of the Cold War.
This policy has paved the way for the modernization of tiny airports
in cities like Frankfurt-Hahn, Dortmund, Lübeck, Cologne and Zweibruecken,
in Germany; in Strasburg, Bergerac, Montpellier and Carcassone,
in France; and several locations in Britain.
Meanwhile, the airlines also have reduced their costs with Internet-based
reservation systems, using just one type of aircraft (for easier
maintenance), and minimal on-board staff.
In the opinion of Werner Reh, an expert with the German Friends
of the Earth organization BUND, this policy ''is completely absurd.''
''The local governments apply their subsidies in a chaotic way and
they compete with each other to obtain the low-cost airlines,''
Reh told Tierramérica.
Several of these companies have not survived, meaning that the local
governments' investment goes to waste in airports that end up abandoned,
he said.
Furthermore, train travel, a viable alternative for trips within
Europe, is suffering as a result of this form of ''disloyal competition'',
in which the airlines are selling services below cost.
Despite the scientific evidence on the harmful environmental effects
of air traffic, the European governments have failed to draw up
a rational policy on the matter.
The burning of jet fuel -- a petroleum product -- releases greenhouse
gases that contribute to global warming and the process of climate
change. Air traffic worldwide produces emissions of more than 600
million tons of carbon dioxide -- the leading greenhouse gas --
each year.
In addition, it releases nitrates, ash, sulfates and water vapor.
Some of these substances deplete ozone in the atmosphere -- this
layer of ozone gas is crucial for protecting life on Earth from
the Sun's harmful rays.
The Britain-based environmental group Tourism Concern predicts that
by 2015 half of the annual destruction of the ozone layer will be
caused by commercial air traffic.
The Royal British Commission on Environmental Pollution estimated
in 2002 that commercial airline emissions are ''a major contributor
to global warming,'' and urged governments to draft policies to
encourage train travel instead.
Tom Blundell, a biochemistry professor at the University of Cambridge
and president of the commission, said he regrets that the only international
instrument for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Kyoto Protocol
(which takes effect in February 2005), ''does not include emissions
from international aviation.''
''This continues to be a very sensitive issue,'' a source from the
Paris-based OzonAction Unit of the United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP), told Tierramérica.
''It is very difficult to introduce the problem of commercial aviation
emissions into international treaties,'' such as the Montreal Protocol,
which establishes protections for the ozone layer, said the source.
''The governments are at the mercy of the (aeronautics) industry
lobby,'' according to Mónica Legge, transport expert with the German
group Robin Wood, based in Hamburg.
''The advertising suggests that we can all fly around the world
almost free and without problems. But it is time that we face the
consequences and take action: we must reduce aviation,'' she said
in a Tierramérica interview.
But even the environmentally conscious Gisela B. has not heard the
message. She recently reserved a round-trip flight to Santo Domingo
-- for just a handful of dollars.
* Julio Godoy is an IPS correspondent.
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