Very interesting article at The New Republic about the possibility that air travel – and air freight – might be getting a whole lot more expensive over the next several years. The basic thrust (hah!) is that air flight requires enormous amounts of fuel, and there’s no equivalent of the Prius or the electric car coming down the pike any time soon. So rising oil costs are really throwing the aviation industry for a loop. The article’s a worthwhile read for the thoughts about the future, but also as a reminder of what our current lifestyle requires to sustain it. For example:
Air freight now plays a huge role globally, carrying, for instance, one-third of the value of all U.S. imports. And the system relies heavily on cheap fuel: Every night, FedEx keeps a number of empty planes up in the air, to better respond to requests at a moment’s notice.
There is something hugely scary to me about the idea that we would just leave a bunch of planes up in the air, burning fuel, for the sake of convenience. And I’m sure I make a host of similar decisions on a much smaller scale every day, like when I leave my PC on during the day or fire up a charcoal grill or order something from Amazon that’s gonna wind up getting split into who knows how many shipments. I’m trying to make as many little changes as I can to be less wasteful . . . but I still feel like the world’s getting ready to force us to make some big changes.