Ethics Newsline®

Christian Science Monitor reports on movement that is trying to clip the wings of frequent travelers

BOSTON
Christian Science Monitor correspondent G. Jeffrey MacDonald reports that a series of demonstrations last week across Britain is highlighting a global movement to reduce air travel.

“Behind this action lurks an ethics-based argument that’s trying to shame routine fliers in developed nations into flying less,” MacDonald writes. “The nub: The planet should not have to suffer the consequences of a fast-growing (if now troubled) air-travel industry. Hence, the argument goes, an ethical consumer should think twice before buying plane tickets.”

Fueling the debate are estimates that leisure travel may almost double by the year 2020, with most of those travelers expected to take to the skies.

Some scientists estimate that airplanes currently account for about 3 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

Still, MacDonald notes, there are several ethical angles to the dilemma: “That flying has a detrimental effect on the environment is widely accepted. The ethical debate hinges instead on such questions as: How much damage is acceptable? When is a flight justified? And when do the benefits of cross-cultural interaction, made possible by flying, outweigh the costs borne by the environment and those who live near runways?”

Spokespeople for the airline industry added one other contention, according to the Monitor report: Employing more than 11 million people worldwide may have some ethical value in its own right.

Source: Christian Science Monitor, May 1.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Feb. 11 — Related Newsline story, Jan. 28 — Related Newsline story, Oct. 29, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 24, 2006 — Related Newsline story, Jan. 23, 2006.