I think this on topic-but if not, bear with me!
I was listening to public radio the other day, and the guest a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize-she is an environmentalist in the Parliment of Kenya.
She was talking about the terrible problem her country has-actually, all countries-but specifically hers-with plastic.

They apparently have billions of those plastic bottles from water.She was asking people to come up with alternatives.

She asked the plastic companies to make thicker plastic bottles,so they can be reused. She has asked the people of her country to go back to using natural baskets,etc. Her plea to us was to do our part when we travel to her country.

I recently bought a special water purifier, to take on my trip, that gets out all pathogens, etc. I was thinking maybe it was too heavy, too bulky-a pain to carry all over the place. After hearing her, I'm so glad I'm bring it and won't have to depwnd exclusively on bottled water. gigirtw
http://blogs.bootsnall.com/gigirtw

Yes, the plastic bottles contribute a lot to pollution.

It isn't necessarily the bottles themselves, but that people don't recycle them as they should.

I do feel a bit guilty flying. I do think we all need to be conscious of our entire carbon footprint...the fact that we recycle all the time, etc. doesn't negate the fact that we are then flying and contributing more. Hopefully some of the airline companies, along with the car companies, will start coming up with alternate fuel vehicles. In the meantime, I try to consolidate travel when possible.

There's an element of guilt in flying, but I get over it. Going places and seeing things is too important to give up. Also, I think that like most of us with environmental consciences, I do have a below-average carbon footprint. My occasional flight is more than offset by my low driving mileage, small car, downtown condo lifestyle.

The other thing is, unlike the car, and home heating, me being on the plane isn't actually causing pollution. With the first two, if I don't do it, there's fewer CO2 emmissions. With flying, and other forms of public transport, there has to be a large number of other people also not flying to make a difference...otherwise the plane is still going to fly, and still pollute just as much.

That's not to say that we should all go crazy because it doesn't matter what we do. If everyone does make a conscious effort to cut down on their flights, by consolodating travel, taking longer trips, etc., there will be a reduction in number of flights. Also, book flights with airlines that run one large plane on the route twice a day, instead of the one the runs a regional jet every hour.

quote:

Originally posted by 2wanderers:
The other thing is, unlike the car, and home heating, me being on the plane isn't actually causing pollution. With the first two, if I don't do it, there's fewer CO2 emmissions. With flying, and other forms of public transport, there has to be a large number of other people also not flying to make a difference...otherwise the plane is still going to fly, and still pollute just as much.

Sorry guys, feel free to do what makes you happy. But you gotta know that one person DOES make a difference.

quote:

Originally posted by Skimaxpower:
The airlines only fly the planes if they sell the tix. If a plane is half full, they WILL cancel or consolidate the flight to make it profitable for them.

By purchasing tix, you are creating the market. You are encouraging them to fly larger planes, you are adding extra weight to the plane, you are using paper for tix, etc, etc, etc.

The "I am only one person" argument simply doesn't hold up here or anywhere else.

the evolution of this planet is cyclical, this is just our cycle...Sure a million years ago there weren't planes, CO2 and massive pollution, but it would impossible for 6 billion people to live pollution free...this is just our era...who knows maybe in 1000 years life will be back to the way it was a million years ago, a frozen tundra with no life...

In my naive world, I don't think traveling contributes to the pollution. I think there are much worse contributors i.e. toxic dumps in to drinking water, unnecessary coal burning factories, china, etc...With all the bad that flying has probably done to the environment it has helped humans evolve in a way that was needed as technology and the evolution of humans continues...I mean without cars, and gas powered forms of transportation how would this world be?

It's too bad the internet can't be blamed for pollution cause there is plenty of garbage that is dumped on it

quote:

Originally posted by Eppyboy:
It's too bad the internet can't be blamed for pollution cause there is plenty of garbage that is dumped on it

Internet Uses 9.4% of Electricity In the US [slashdot]

"Equipment powering the internet accounts for 9.4% of electricity demand in the U.S., and 5.3% of global demand, according to research by David Sarokin at online pay-for-answers service Uclue. Worldwide, that's 868 billion kilowatt-hours per year. The total includes the energy used by desktop computers and monitors (which makes up two-thirds of the total), plus other energy sinks including modems, routers, data processing equipment and cooling equipment."