CarbonTracking

The holy grail.

Sometimes you need to be someplace quick, maybe its to see about a girl, maybe its to be at an 60th birthday party when you know you have to be 1550km away by the following afternoon. The offset scene won't be enough to fix that guilty conscience,I mean staying fat while paying someone else to lose weight sits uneasily, doesn't it.

So how can we square this circle ? Well lets start with the question, why do airplanes fly ? After all, the problem is really the flying airplanes, they're the ones burning all that tax-free kerosene way up in the atmosphere.

The current carbon accounting approach, is to say that airplanes fly because people travel. So if an airline flys a total of, lets say, one million airmiles with 1000 passengers then each passenger is responsible for the kerosene burnt over 1000 airmiles.

Lets ask the qustion again, why do airplanes fly ? Don't airplane fly because airlines want to make money from the tickets sold to passengers ? So does it stand to reason that the responsibility then follows the money ?

To illustrate this lets take the case of a 100-seater airplane flying the Toulouse-Shannon route. Normally you'll have 20% percent of the passengers paying through the nose, 60% paying the "regular" price and 20% paying very little, special offers, propmotions etc. Now the question is, which of these passengers needs to stop flying in order to have the airline cancel that flight, thus avoiding al those emissions ? Well whatever way you do the maths, the 20% paying very little are not going to count for much in the decision.

Is this the achilles heel of the no-fly campaign ? If I fly, while giving little or no money to the airline, am I not somewhat absolved of the carbon guilt ? If I fly for free, as can happen on low-cost airlines, am I carbon-neutral ? If I fly for free, and use the money that I would have paid for alternative transport for insulating my grand-mothers house (additionality clause), am I then carbon-positive ?

Answers on a postcard please..

NOTE: The author needs to go to Ireland in a few weeks.

• Flying would cost €10 and produce 400kg of CO2e.
• Train and ferry would cost €360 and produce 130kg of CO2e.
• Train half way and plane the rest would cost €140 and produces 220kg CO2e