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Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

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Lootman
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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#357935

Postby Lootman » November 18th, 2020, 10:34 pm

dspp wrote:
Lootman wrote: On the one side we have the self-styled "expert" .

When it comes to renewables/energy, or wider engineering fields, please note it is you who are throwing the moniker at me in a pejorative manner, rather than a term I have applied to myself. If you can find a flaw in my reasoning in those topic areas please draw it to my attention so I can learn.

I was not casting doubt on the extent of your professional competence in this field. I do not know enough to know either way but I always like to give others here the benefit of the doubt, so will accept that at face value.

Rather my point was that experts, scientists, technologists, engineers, specialists, whatever you want to call them, only get you so far. They are inputs into the debate, as are many others. But they do not decide the outcome - rather that is a political and democratic decision.

So when it comes to deciding what we do, if anything, about this alleged problem then your vote doesn't count more than anyone else's. Being informed may be necessary but cannot be sufficient. The voters are entitled to disregard the science if they hold other factors to be more vital to their wellbeing, like freedom, mobility and prosperity.

But if you thought I was being pejorative then I apologise.

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#357973

Postby dealtn » November 19th, 2020, 8:49 am

Lootman wrote:Rather my point was that experts, scientists, technologists, engineers, specialists, whatever you want to call them, only get you so far. They are inputs into the debate, as are many others. But they do not decide the outcome - rather that is a political and democratic decision.



There is usually another consideration, and one where the "expert" is rarely a visible part of the debate, and often ignored by the vocal minority ensuring the issue is visible to the wider audience. It isn't just scientific expert vs individual liberty.

Often the thought is with the person having to "give up" something they are used to, or have an (expected) "right" to. A bigger issue is usually with the person who has yet to acquire that "right", or the economic means to purchase it, yet sees the unfairness in being denied the future use or right. These are the conflicts that ultimately lead to global strains and can spill over not just into global trade conflicts, but potentially wars at the extreme.

You will often have scientists (even assuming they agree) that will present a logical path of, for example, flying uses carbon, which produces emissions, they harm the planet, now and into the future, which are (clearly!) a bad thing, so we need to reduce (or stop). You rarely see the counter from the "social scientist" who points out that by stopping there is a potential for the imbalances in the worlds economies to remain. The (often Western) scientist is saying, it seems, the West has developed an economy where it is "richer" and enjoying the fruits of that wealth, and is now denying the developing world its opportunity to access those (future) benefits when it catches up, or overtakes.

China, or India, or Brazil, or Russia.... doesn't view an imposition to restrict flying, or the ownership of a fridge, or a car ... as a fair outcome, and its unlikely the West will be proposing a solution where only 50% of its population has a fridge, or bans second cars etc. to rebalance either.

So you have a scientist saying if we don't stop flying, polluting, using up the worlds resources ... the (future) population of the planet will be harmed, extreme weather events, millions killed etc., but you don't have the social scientist countering with the possible outcomes of the proposed solution which might lead to global tensions, trade wars, actual wars, that in turn mean economic harm, loss of life etc.

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#358011

Postby GoSeigen » November 19th, 2020, 10:06 am

dealtn wrote:I responded to someone who suggested that we should be rationing people's air miles. I thought such rationing would reduce the number of people flying by 1 or 2 a flight. In which case virtually the same emissions would occur. I then asked what had I missed? Maybe that 1, or 2, isn't the correct number and that rationing would be more strict such that total flights would fall significantly, and with it emissions. In which case that can be pointed out and explained to me.

If you think it should be the case that the 1% should fly the same as the rest of the population, even given that 99% would have varying amounts of flying to "match" with, surely the likely outcome would be close to no airlines and no flights. Sure we would have no emissions, but I'm not sure that's a desirable outcome. Or is it?


Not commenting about the rights and wrongs, but wondering what is difficult about this?


Let's do a thought experiment and assume that each the 1% create the same amount of emissions as the average on each flight taken (which dspp is suggesting may not be the case but I am simplifying here). So the average journey of the 1% creates the same emissions as the average journey of other flyers.

Now pretend that there are two flights per day. (There are in reality thousands, but this makes it easier to understand.) One plane (A) is filled with the 1%. The other (B) is filled with other people. Each plane travels the same distance on its route.

Every day plane A carries the same people. Every day plane B carries a different (new) set of people. After 100 days the 1% make up 1% of the population who have flown (1 plane-full of unique people vs 100 planes-full). But they have created 50% of the emissions, because they have flown on 50% of the journeys. Effectively the 1% fly all over the place everyday whilst each of the others have only flown once.


The thought experiment can be adjusted for dspp's points: so if the 1% use 3 times as much emissions on each flight, then make plane A one third as full but everyone flies for 33 days instead of 100.


So by my reckoning the average flight would be about half full if the rationing limited all passengers to the same amount of flying as the 99%.

Have I missed anything?

GS

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#358015

Postby dealtn » November 19th, 2020, 10:11 am

GoSeigen wrote:
dealtn wrote:I responded to someone who suggested that we should be rationing people's air miles. I thought such rationing would reduce the number of people flying by 1 or 2 a flight. In which case virtually the same emissions would occur. I then asked what had I missed? Maybe that 1, or 2, isn't the correct number and that rationing would be more strict such that total flights would fall significantly, and with it emissions. In which case that can be pointed out and explained to me.

If you think it should be the case that the 1% should fly the same as the rest of the population, even given that 99% would have varying amounts of flying to "match" with, surely the likely outcome would be close to no airlines and no flights. Sure we would have no emissions, but I'm not sure that's a desirable outcome. Or is it?


Not commenting about the rights and wrongs, but wondering what is difficult about this?


Let's do a thought experiment and assume that each the 1% create the same amount of emissions as the average on each flight taken (which dspp is suggesting may not be the case but I am simplifying here). So the average journey of the 1% creates the same emissions as the average journey of other flyers.

Now pretend that there are two flights per day. (There are in reality thousands, but this makes it easier to understand.) One plane (A) is filled with the 1%. The other (B) is filled with other people. Each plane travels the same distance on its route.

Every day plane A carries the same people. Every day plane B carries a different (new) set of people. After 100 days the 1% make up 1% of the population who have flown (1 plane-full of unique people vs 100 planes-full). But they have created 50% of the emissions, because they have flown on 50% of the journeys. Effectively the 1% fly all over the place everyday whilst each of the others have only flown once.


The thought experiment can be adjusted for dspp's points: so if the 1% use 3 times as much emissions on each flight, then make plane A one third as full but everyone flies for 33 days instead of 100.


So by my reckoning the average flight would be about half full if the rationing limited all passengers to the same amount of flying as the 99%.

Have I missed anything?

GS


What is difficult is the "pretending".

What practical measures do you suggest to "ration" the 1% in the real world, and how will that play out in the real world do you think? Thought experiments about plane A always having the high flyers, and plane B the others, bears no relationship to the reality of the world that I can see.

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#358057

Postby GoSeigen » November 19th, 2020, 11:57 am

dealtn wrote:What is difficult is the "pretending".

Well if you can't accept an abstract form of argument then what do you suggest? How does the real world look to you?

What practical measures do you suggest to "ration" the 1% in the real world, and how will that play out in the real world do you think? Thought experiments about plane A always having the high flyers, and plane B the others, bears no relationship to the reality of the world that I can see.


I have no opinion about how to ration or if it should even be done, so will leave that to its proponents to answer.

GS

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#358062

Postby dealtn » November 19th, 2020, 12:07 pm

GoSeigen wrote:
dealtn wrote:What is difficult is the "pretending".

Well if you can't accept an abstract form of argument then what do you suggest? How does the real world look to you?



I can accept an abstract argument.

What you said was "what is difficult?", to which I answered. A hypothetical abstract argument is difficult to apply to the real world. If the real world had just the 2 sets of planes, and their users, as you describe I think we could both agree answers to the practical problem wouldn't be difficult.

However, in answer to your subsequent question, the real world looks different to me (and probably to you and others too). That is why solutions to the problem are so difficult. It is all well and good having the problem pointed out, but devising practical solutions to it isn't so easy. As you appear to concede yourself with the statement "I have no opinion about how to ration or if it should even be done...", and as you say it is up to the proponents to answer that. Yet that rarely appears to happen.

A degree of rationing already occurs via tax imposition etc. but the suggestion is either that isn't working, or more should be done in addition.

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#358100

Postby Lootman » November 19th, 2020, 2:34 pm

dealtn wrote:solutions to the problem are so difficult. It is all well and good having the problem pointed out, but devising practical solutions to it isn't so easy. As you appear to concede yourself with the statement "I have no opinion about how to ration or if it should even be done...", and as you say it is up to the proponents to answer that. Yet that rarely appears to happen.

A degree of rationing already occurs via tax imposition etc. but the suggestion is either that isn't working, or more should be done in addition.

Yes, like a lot of "think tank" reports, there is a lot of detailing about the problem but little about what to do about it. Scientists are better at observing and collating than they are at planning and action. But I only saw 2 ideas in the article for an implementation:

1) Fiddling around with taxes and fees. This of course already happens and the UK is a world leader in dumping taxes and artificial costs onto flying, from the notoriously expensive air passenger tax to BA and Virgin's usurious fees on cashing in air miles. More of that will just drive air passengers to originate elsewhere which is already worth doing if you are not in a rush. And the article itself casts doubt this would be effective - the rich will still fly anyway so it would really just deny flying to the poor, whilst the article tries to claim it is the rich who cause the problem.

2) Rationing, which begs a bunch of questions about how that could ever work. If the UK tells me I can only fly once a year out of the UK, what is to stop me crossing by land and sea to Dublin, Brussels, Paris or Amsterdam, and then flying from there? What about UK residents who have a non-UK passport? How on earth would any of this be tracked and enforced? How much aviation and other business would the UK lose to other nations? Something like this could even drive residency decisions, again for those with the means to do so.

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#358113

Postby Dod101 » November 19th, 2020, 3:27 pm

I think in general we have the wrong end of the stick. It is not the passenger that needs to have his air travel rationed it is the airlines themselves. Do not build another runway at Heathrow and so restrict the number of flights that leave from there. This is though an international industry if anything is so it will need an international solution. Any chance of that? Not the slightest so it is all just so much hot air.

Like the motor vehicle, it will need a massive and fundamental change of fuel from kerosene to something else. Flying is here to stay.

Dod

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#358335

Postby JamesMuenchen » November 20th, 2020, 10:34 am

A timely article on the topic from Bill Gates
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/17/coronav ... -term.html

It seems that business travel isn't all that special in terms of trips/revenue numbers -
Business travelers before the virus accounted for half of U.S. airlines’ revenue, but just 30% of the trips, according to Airlines for America, an industry group that represents most U.S. carriers.

Not all that much.

I get the feeling the "1% of the global population" might be 'us' rather than 'them'.

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#387572

Postby DiamondEcho » February 17th, 2021, 9:09 pm

dspp wrote: 2. Over the last several years I have been one of those frequent flyers, ironically primarily on decarbonisation/renewables matters.


Ah yes, you and 'St. Greta Of the Carbon-fibre Hulled Yacht' so energy intensive the carbon fibre plants have to be built near hydro-electric facilities. Oh, and on the way back from St. Greta's mission to the US, apparently she and her whole multi-$million yacht crew, TV, etc entourage took Business Class flights back to Sweden. Ain't life grand when you on a noble mission!

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#387573

Postby Lootman » February 17th, 2021, 9:11 pm

DiamondEcho wrote:
dspp wrote: 2. Over the last several years I have been one of those frequent flyers, ironically primarily on decarbonisation/renewables matters.

Ah yes, you and 'St. Greta Of the Carbon-fibre Hulled Yacht' so energy intensive the carbon fibre plants have to be built near hydro-electric facilities. Oh, and on the way back from St. Greta's mission to the US, apparently she and her whole multi-$million yacht crew, TV, etc entourage took Business Class flights back to Sweden. Ain't life grand when you on a noble mission!

If there is one thing I am grateful for about Covid, it is that it has taken that odious teenager off the front page.

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#387587

Postby dspp » February 17th, 2021, 10:15 pm

Lootman wrote:
DiamondEcho wrote:
dspp wrote: 2. Over the last several years I have been one of those frequent flyers, ironically primarily on decarbonisation/renewables matters.

Ah yes, you and 'St. Greta Of the Carbon-fibre Hulled Yacht' so energy intensive the carbon fibre plants have to be built near hydro-electric facilities. Oh, and on the way back from St. Greta's mission to the US, apparently she and her whole multi-$million yacht crew, TV, etc entourage took Business Class flights back to Sweden. Ain't life grand when you on a noble mission!

If there is one thing I am grateful for about Covid, it is that it has taken that odious teenager off the front page.


DiamondEcho wrote:
dspp wrote: 2. Over the last several years I have been one of those frequent flyers, ironically primarily on decarbonisation/renewables matters.


Ah yes, you and 'St. Greta Of the Carbon-fibre Hulled Yacht' so energy intensive the carbon fibre plants have to be built near hydro-electric facilities. Oh, and on the way back from St. Greta's mission to the US, apparently she and her whole multi-$million yacht crew, TV, etc entourage took Business Class flights back to Sweden. Ain't life grand when you on a noble mission!


Why write such an utter crock of lies.

Greta Thunberg travelled from Lisbon to Madrid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_Greta_Thunberg
arriving by train
https://www.thelocal.es/20191206/greta- ... ate-summit

then by rail to Sweden
https://www.dw.com/en/greta-thunbergs-t ... a-51677609

Like her or loathe her, don't write lies about her. It says more about you than it does about her.

- dspp

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#387600

Postby DiamondEcho » February 17th, 2021, 11:43 pm

Via the US. I mean the whole point was to protest at the UN (ie in NY), the rest is just added carbon emissions.

Travels a lot doesn't she? Got to love the page title of St. Greta's page 'Voyage of Greta Thunberg'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_Greta_Thunberg

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#387638

Postby dspp » February 18th, 2021, 9:02 am

DiamondEcho wrote:Via the US. I mean the whole point was to protest at the UN (ie in NY), the rest is just added carbon emissions.

Travels a lot doesn't she? Got to love the page title of St. Greta's page 'Voyage of Greta Thunberg'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_Greta_Thunberg


I don't think you have paid attention, read the wiki article.

Firstly she avoided air travel which is contrary to your false statement " Oh, and on the way back from St. Greta's mission to the US, apparently she and her whole multi-$million yacht crew, TV, etc entourage took Business Class flights back to Sweden.".

Secondly the travel planning was specifically in support of climate change matters and had to be considerably rearranged, and she coped admirably with the changes, "Thunberg planned to stay in the Americas for some months, attending both the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit in September in New York and the COP 25 climate change conference which was scheduled to be held in Chile in December. However, at the end of October, while she was in the United States, it was decided to move the second event to Spain because of the 2019 Chilean protests.[3] "

There is something rather odd in the way some people feel the need to spread malicious lies about a young girl.

- dspp

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#388091

Postby DiamondEcho » February 20th, 2021, 12:53 am

dspp wrote:There is something rather odd in the way some people feel the need to spread malicious lies about a young girl.
- dspp


It seems obvious to me, the weird anger at the world of the squinted-eye multi-mullionaire pre-teen savant as she sails the world on a mega-carbon yacht (and flies back business class avec entire crew, of course) to er... protest againt, well carbon emissions. Hot air indeed, but very profitable it seems. She's been quiet of late; did she retire by 16?

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#388099

Postby servodude » February 20th, 2021, 1:19 am

DiamondEcho wrote:
dspp wrote:There is something rather odd in the way some people feel the need to spread malicious lies about a young girl.
- dspp


It seems obvious to me, the weird anger at the world of the squinted-eye multi-mullionaire pre-teen savant as she sails the world on a mega-carbon yacht (and flies back business class avec entire crew, of course) to er... protest againt, well carbon emissions. Hot air indeed, but very profitable it seems. She's been quiet of late; did she retire by 16?


I think the bit that isn't obvious is why people are repeating and spreading those lies
- so can you enlighten us as to why you feel the need to do that (spread lies about a teenager)?
- what do you get from it?

-sd

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#388102

Postby swill453 » February 20th, 2021, 4:59 am

DiamondEcho wrote:and flies back business class

Must be an elaborate conspiracy covering that up then https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/clim ... urope.html

Scott.

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#388104

Postby GrahamPlatt » February 20th, 2021, 7:07 am

So, what to do about it?
Well, the same as we're doing for road transport:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... rst-flight
Looks good to me.

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#388144

Postby dspp » February 20th, 2021, 10:29 am

DiamondEcho wrote:
dspp wrote:There is something rather odd in the way some people feel the need to spread malicious lies about a young girl.
- dspp


It seems obvious to me, the weird anger at the world of the squinted-eye multi-mullionaire pre-teen savant as she sails the world on a mega-carbon yacht (and flies back business class avec entire crew, of course) to er... protest againt, well carbon emissions. Hot air indeed, but very profitable it seems. She's been quiet of late; did she retire by 16?


I'm sorry DE, but please provide specific proof that GT flew back, business class or economy. Actual proof wrt to GT herself.

Absent proof, please stop spreading malicious lies.

- dspp

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Re: Half aviation emissions caused by 1% of people

#388318

Postby DiamondEcho » February 21st, 2021, 1:16 am

'Thunberg made the trip across the Atlantic to attend a United Nations climate summit taking place in September — and she did it without leaving a carbon footprint. She traveled aboard the Malizia II, which has its own solar panels and hydro-generators to power the yacht. (Her journey did spark some criticism for the emissions associated with it because others will fly to New York to bring the yacht back to Europe, although those flights will reportedly be offset.)'
https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/28/2083 ... ate-change

Meanwhile what did St Greta do to get back from the US to Sweden, walk on water perhaps?


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