[RTC List] Fwd: Bringing Delta Airlines to the Eureka/Arcata Airport

[Aaron Antrim]

I wanted to share this response to my email from energy researcher  
Michael Winkler with the list.  Since he is not subscribed to the RTC  
list, I do not believe his reply went out. Thanks, Michael. -aaron

Begin forwarded message:

> From: mlw9 at humboldt.edu
> Date: 18 December 2007 12:39:00 PM PST
> To: "Aaron Antrim" <aaron at arcatacommunity.org>
> Cc: vantek at sonic.net, list at redwoodtech.org, "Michael Winkler" <mlw9 at humboldt.edu 
> >
> Subject: Re: [RTC List] Bringing Delta Airlines to the Eureka/Arcata  
> Airport
>
> Aaron:
>
> The subject of air travel, its environmental impacts and its economic
> benefits is complex. Under the current circumstances expanded air  
> service
> to our area is economically beneficial. However, air travel has one  
> of the
> highest environmental impacts per passenger mile of any form of
> transportation. Therefore I am not actively supporting or opposing
> expanded routes to our airport.
>
> I have largely given up air travel. I have taken only 1 trip by air  
> in the
> past 5 years. The trip was for business and I didn't have time to  
> take the
> train. Your data agree with my research. Fuel efficiency of  
> airplanes with
> average passenger loading is approximately 36 passenger-miles per  
> gallon.
> According to the IPCC global warming impact is approximately doubled
> because of the extra impact of nitrous oxides and water vapor at the
> altitude that planes fly. Global warming impact could be significantly
> reduced by planes flying at lower altitudes at the cost of slightly
> increased fuel consumption. My research agrees with your number of
> approximately 160 passenger-miles per gallon for Greyhound.
>
> I agree with George Monbiot, a prominent British environmental writer,
> that air travel is fundamentally unsustainable. He and I both agree  
> that
> sustainable motorized transportation will largely need to be powered  
> by
> electricity from renewable, non-biological sources. This is not a
> realistic possibility for air travel. It is unlikely that average fuel
> efficiency of airplanes will improve more than about 25% in the next  
> 50
> years. The other problem with air travel is because travel times are  
> so
> short that people tend to travel much further than they would if  
> they had
> to use other slower means.
>
> For the time being I would recommend that each person ask themselves  
> how
> necessary each plane trip is and consider traveling by other means. I
> would also suggest taking vacations closer to home. I support  
> building a
> bullet train in California. This could replace a substantial  
> fraction of
> air travel between San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. I have  
> read
> that there will a bond issue to fund this in November 2008.
>
>                                           Michael Winkler
>

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