Global Warming and the Travel Industry

There is a significant percentage of the business community leaders who do not believe in global warming and many are from the travel industry. For example, at a recent airline-sponsored luncheon, seated next to was the owner of one of the nation’s largest travel agencies. She turned to me, out of the blue, and said, “I do not believe in global warming”.

I didn’t react the way she assumed. She probably thought I would agree since “you don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you”. I simply ignored her statement. In retrospect, I should have at least let her know that I agreed with the scientists whom have tested climate change and found otherwise. The airline and cruise industries are major contributors and both expect to double capacity within 15 years,

There are some encouraging moves to curb the amount of CO2 spewed out by airlines. In a recent Washington Post story, it was reported that a United Nations panel, International Civil Aviation Organization, proposed the first-ever standards for carbon dioxide emissions for aircraft worldwide. The rules are for all international aircraft and all larger planes for domestic flights beginning in 2023.

A spokesperson of the U.S. airline industry praised the move- “We strongly support the aircraft CO2 standards put forth by [the ICAO committee], as they will further support our global aviation coalition’s emissions goals to achieve 1.5 percent annual average fuel efficiency improvements through 2020 and carbon neutral growth from 2020.”

We at EWA are pro-actions to reduce global warming. We believe we are stewards of our environment and strongly support all actions to reduce the growth of CO2 emissions.

Written By Bob Utne, Chairman of EWA Travel