• Robyn Williams

07 July 2011In Inside Story, frequent flyer Robyn Williams takes a look at how aviation is dealing with its carbon footprint

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I FLY a lot. It comes with the job. I’ve also, jesuitically perhaps, regarded seats on planes like any other form of public transport – if the service runs to a timetable, why not be on it?

Since big jets first flew in the 1970s plane travel has been within the reach of all of us. Given a couple of grand you can get to most places. But now there are new considerations. First are the emissions – about 3 per cent of greenhouse gases – too great? Second, now that the arrival of peak oil has been confirmed even by the International Energy Agency in Paris, we must be even more mindful of George Orwell’s warning: the energy must come from somewhere. If not coal or oil, then what…?

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Photo of Cambridge University’s Ann Dowling by Engineering at Cambridge