Scientists Send Message: 'Cut Air Travel for the Environment'
LONDON Britain should drastically reduce the growth of air
travel to bring greenhouse gas emissions within levels that will
avoid dangerous climate change, a report by leading
environmental scientists said Wednesday. Air travel has boomed
in recent years thanks largely to cheaper flights, and the
government predicts that the number of air passengers in Britain
will more than double by 2020. But aviation is a major source of
carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, because planes burn
huge amounts of fossil fuels at high altitudes. The government
says it wants a 60 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by
2050, compared to 1990 levels, as the nation's contribution
toward preventing an increase in temperatures that would
threaten a dangerous level of climate change. But the Tyndall
Center for Climate Change Research, which includes scientists
from universities across Britain, said that target is
incompatible with the current expansion rate of the a