Canadian Company Will Plant 1,176 Trees To Offset Obama’s Flight To Copenhagen Climate Conference
Filed under: Patrick, Politics & Issues
Author: Patrick
Date: Dec 17, 2009
President Barack Obama will be taking Air Force One, a Boeing 747-200B series, 3,979 miles to Denmark tomorrow, December 18th, for the Copenhagen Climate Conference. A Canadian company based in Saint John, New Brunswick called LimeGreen Earth wishes to set a precedence in the global community, showing everyone that it’s up to each and every individual to reduce their carbon emissions. As dramatic as it sounds, they actually have a really, really good point.
A while back, I went to the Vancouver premiere screening of The Age of Stupid with Donovan, with some of the cast of ABC’s V, the mayor of Vancouver, and other “names,” in attendance. In the film, there was a family in Europe that was trying to implement solar wind power into their farm community, but no one would have it because it would “obstruct their view” and “lower the property value.” No one except this one family was willing to make their own personal sacrifice for the environment, or really for the future of their children, and children’s children. The family was also invited to go on a trip, but realized that if they took the flight, it would equate to their budgeted target carbon footprint for a year, all in one shot. They declined the trip. Really makes you think.
Air Force One will emit an estimated 196 tons of carbon on the trip to the conference. It should be clarified that the company, and president of the company Andrew Thomas, are not saying that Barack Obama is a bad guy. On the contrary, they actually applaud the global effort in Copenhagen to prevent further climate depreciation and to take steps to repair the existing damage. “We believe that President Obama’s leadership in Copenhagen will be imperative to achieving these goals,” the company news release said.
I think we’ve created a monster because I can’t even imagine what the world would be like if we couldn’t fly anywhere. What’s the solution? Maybe less business travel? Limit vacations?
What do you think about flying and the affect on the environment?
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Jared
December 17th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Limiting air travel would be a greater burden on us than a benefit. Business travels are important in that they bring executives together to meet face-to-face which is essential to successful agreements, etc, which helps drive the global economy. Vacation and tourism is a significant source of revenue for several countries around the world which also keeps the economy afloat (especially in these times where it’s necessary for countries to reduce GDP deficits, otherwise you end up like Greece and Spain with their debt ratings dropping because they can’t reduce debt margins). Fact of the matter is it’s hard to really make a huge dent at once without risking a big meltdown and we all suffer a huge loss in standard of living. Technology is key in helping us achieve our goals towards global climate change. Technology has always been the key in developing industries for increasing efficiency and helping companies grow. Boeing has come out with the 787 Dreamliner (which began test flights yesterday in Washington state) which is made with plastic over plastic, which makes the plane much lighter, therefore substantially decreasing the amount of carbon output a plan creates while traveling. In any case, most pollution comes from farmed meat which greatly overshadows pollution from cars and travel.