Must Globetrotting Aussies Be Grounded?

Wired blogger responds to Oz travel-bashing

By Michael Foreman, Newser User

Posted Aug 20, 2008 2:54 PM CDT

(Newser) – It's even harder being green if you're Australian, since it takes a long-haul flight to get practically anywhere, Adele Horin observes in the Sydney Morning Herald. Aussies consider globetrotting to be part of their birthright, but Horin thinks it's time her country-mates recognize airplanes for what they are: "toxic flying machines" that pump out as much CO2 on one round trip to London as most consumers expend in 2 years.

Enough with the breastbeating, Dave Demerjian counters in Wired. Australia sits thousands of miles from key financial hubs, and air travel contributes just 1% to the country's emissions. "Is it fair to ask residents of an isolated island nation to suck it up while the rest of us travel freely?" he asks. Demerjian counters that auto pollution poses a larger threat, and Australia still produces fewer emissions overall than worldwide averages.

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Sydney Morning Herald columnist Adele Horin calls Qanta 747s "toxic flying machines." (AP Photo, file)

Air travel accounts for just 1% of Australia's emissions, far less than the 10% automobiles produce. (© Marxchivist)

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In much of the world, cities, forests, beaches and mountains can be reached by train or car. Is it fair to punish Australians because they don't have this luxury? - Dave Demerjian, Salon

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Must Globetrotting Aussies Be Grounded?