How an industry built on pollution is getting a tiny bit greener—and faster
The amount of time between aircraft as they land at Toronto Pearson International Airport might seem prosaic to the untrained eye, but there’s a lot more going on than pilots negotiating the gentle return to earth of hundreds of tons of metal. Every millisecond that passes is tied to a new technology touted as a partial solution to two intractable problems (albeit of wildly divergent importance). We’re of course talking about airport delays and global warming. A technology called Intelligent Approach (IA) is constantly working to tighten the space between incoming aircraft as they approach Pearson. It’s one of a number of new systems aimed at chipping away at the carbon footprint of an inherently dirty industry: commercial aviation. Aircraft which rely on jet fuel aren’t going away anytime soon. While biofuels are slowly growing in use, scaling them to make a major dent in airplane emissions is arguably a long way off. And the battery technology necessary to even consider electric airliners is much more elusive. So commercial aviation says it’s looking to lop off emissions where it can—from the routes aircraft take to the time they spend circling airports, sitting on the tarmac, or idling at the gate. All of that time wastes fuel and spews carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But while it may seem like any cut in emissions is a good thing, that may not be the case. Critics worry such technologies are a kind of airline greenwashing, inviting consumers to feel less guilty about air travel when they still should. Worse, there are fears these efforts might distract from the real solution. “For the longest time, aviation as a sector has managed emissions by spreading discourses that, at some point in the future, the issues will be resolved,” says Stefan Gössling, a professor of tourism research at Linnaeus University in Växjö, Sweden. “[But] we have not come any closer to a break in emissions.” Airlines “all know that if they engage with the real issue, which is new fuels, they simply couldn’t afford it.” Story has much more.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2022-11-21/general/how-an-industry-built-on-pollution-is-getting-a-tiny-bit-greener2014and-faster
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How an industry built on pollution is getting a tiny bit greener—and faster
The amount of time between aircraft as they land at Toronto Pearson International Airport might seem prosaic to the untrained eye, but there’s a lot more going on than pilots negotiating the gentle return to earth of hundreds of tons of metal. Every millisecond that passes is tied to a new technology touted as a partial solution to two intractable problems (albeit of wildly divergent importance). We’re of course talking about airport delays and global warming. A technology called Intelligent Approach (IA) is constantly working to tighten the space between incoming aircraft as they approach Pearson. It’s one of a number of new systems aimed at chipping away at the carbon footprint of an inherently dirty industry: commercial aviation. Aircraft which rely on jet fuel aren’t going away anytime soon. While biofuels are slowly growing in use, scaling them to make a major dent in airplane emissions is arguably a long way off. And the battery technology necessary to even consider electric airliners is much more elusive. So commercial aviation says it’s looking to lop off emissions where it can—from the routes aircraft take to the time they spend circling airports, sitting on the tarmac, or idling at the gate. All of that time wastes fuel and spews carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But while it may seem like any cut in emissions is a good thing, that may not be the case. Critics worry such technologies are a kind of airline greenwashing, inviting consumers to feel less guilty about air travel when they still should. Worse, there are fears these efforts might distract from the real solution. “For the longest time, aviation as a sector has managed emissions by spreading discourses that, at some point in the future, the issues will be resolved,” says Stefan Gössling, a professor of tourism research at Linnaeus University in Växjö, Sweden. “[But] we have not come any closer to a break in emissions.” Airlines “all know that if they engage with the real issue, which is new fuels, they simply couldn’t afford it.” Story has much more.<br/>
