Reading Hattie's post on air travel and global warming has led me to start this one on travel, aviation in particular, in the age of peak oil and climate change. This is a post in progress, and I'll add new links and writing as I refine it.
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-articles/read.main?id=81
Showing posts with label airplanes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label airplanes. Show all posts
Friday, November 02, 2012
Saturday, June 09, 2012
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Energy and Hawaii
This will be a short essay on oil and renewable power in Hawaii.
Ian Lind: "Energy Costs, Air Fares, and Our Tourism-Dependent Economy."
I'm still working on this, but wanted to add that direct flights between Hilo and Los Angeles have just begun for the first time since 1983. Are we approaching the peak of oil production or have we passed it? I don't know, but air travel will severely contract in the Post-Oil Age.
Update: I found this.
http://www.disappearednews.com/2011/06/energy-and-power-in-hawaii-1850-93.html
Ian Lind: "Energy Costs, Air Fares, and Our Tourism-Dependent Economy."
I'm still working on this, but wanted to add that direct flights between Hilo and Los Angeles have just begun for the first time since 1983. Are we approaching the peak of oil production or have we passed it? I don't know, but air travel will severely contract in the Post-Oil Age.
Update: I found this.
http://www.disappearednews.com/2011/06/energy-and-power-in-hawaii-1850-93.html
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Monday, March 31, 2008
The Airlines Are Dying, Says Kunstler
March 31, 2008
The airlines are dying.It was not a good week to be at the mercy of America's floundering air travel program. The price of aviation fuel is killing them. They can't fire any more employees or shed anymore pension obligations. There is no elasticity left in the system. Coming back from Denver yesterday, the chaos at the concourse gates was impressive. Nobody knew when or if a given flight would board, and they certainly didn't post any realistic information on the high-def screens at every gate. When asked for updates, the harried gate agents could offer none. So much for computer wizardry. It is interesting to see how passively the public accepts this. For now, they slump like war refugees in the blow-molded plastic seats, numb with fatigue, anxiety, and disappointment. But I wonder if there will be riots in the concourses sometime later this year.
==
Aloha Airlines (est. 1946) will cease its passenger services after today.
Update: But the Zeppelins are coming!
3 April update: ATA Airlines comes in for a permanent landing.
The airlines are dying.It was not a good week to be at the mercy of America's floundering air travel program. The price of aviation fuel is killing them. They can't fire any more employees or shed anymore pension obligations. There is no elasticity left in the system. Coming back from Denver yesterday, the chaos at the concourse gates was impressive. Nobody knew when or if a given flight would board, and they certainly didn't post any realistic information on the high-def screens at every gate. When asked for updates, the harried gate agents could offer none. So much for computer wizardry. It is interesting to see how passively the public accepts this. For now, they slump like war refugees in the blow-molded plastic seats, numb with fatigue, anxiety, and disappointment. But I wonder if there will be riots in the concourses sometime later this year.
==
Aloha Airlines (est. 1946) will cease its passenger services after today.
Update: But the Zeppelins are coming!
3 April update: ATA Airlines comes in for a permanent landing.
Monday, February 25, 2008
The Nutty CEO
Kunstler's latest Grunt takes on overly optimistic claims that airplanes can run on palm-oil derived biofuel. I've heard of the coconut wireless, and coconut radio, but coconut airplanes?
February 25, 2008
Blowing More Green Smoke Up Our Own Ass
Virgin Airlines CEO Richard Branson announced the beginning of "green" air travel with great fanfare over the weekend by flying a big Airbus jet plane on a combination of coconut and palm oil derived fuel. Now the public is supposed to rest assured that the airline industry has been "saved" by "new technology." It's possible that Branson actually believes this bullshit -- since, contrary to conventional belief, you don't have to be especially intelligent to succeed in business. But the public is sure to be disappointed as reality asserts itself and they discover that the stunt doesn't scale world-wide. That is, sure, you can demonstrate that "a" jet plane can fly on bio-fuel. But can you run the entire global airline fleet on coconut and palm oil, or even a fraction of it? Of course not -- unless you cut down the entire Amazon rain forest and replant it with oil tree crops. Not to mention that the CO2 emissions spraying out of bio-fuel jets at 38,000 feet is not materially different from regular jet fuel exhaust. This is just another tragic attempt to persuade ourselves that we don't have to change our behavior.
===
This Guardian article is also skeptical:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/25/biofuels.theairlineindustry?gusrc=rss&feed=media
February 25, 2008
Blowing More Green Smoke Up Our Own Ass
Virgin Airlines CEO Richard Branson announced the beginning of "green" air travel with great fanfare over the weekend by flying a big Airbus jet plane on a combination of coconut and palm oil derived fuel. Now the public is supposed to rest assured that the airline industry has been "saved" by "new technology." It's possible that Branson actually believes this bullshit -- since, contrary to conventional belief, you don't have to be especially intelligent to succeed in business. But the public is sure to be disappointed as reality asserts itself and they discover that the stunt doesn't scale world-wide. That is, sure, you can demonstrate that "a" jet plane can fly on bio-fuel. But can you run the entire global airline fleet on coconut and palm oil, or even a fraction of it? Of course not -- unless you cut down the entire Amazon rain forest and replant it with oil tree crops. Not to mention that the CO2 emissions spraying out of bio-fuel jets at 38,000 feet is not materially different from regular jet fuel exhaust. This is just another tragic attempt to persuade ourselves that we don't have to change our behavior.
===
This Guardian article is also skeptical:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/25/biofuels.theairlineindustry?gusrc=rss&feed=media
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