Archive for the ‘American airlines’ Category

Airlines such as Air Canada are starting to address climate change concerns by offering carbon offsets to passengers.

Behind the scenes, however, carriers such as United and American have been increasing the amount of their jet fuel that comes from liquefied coal, oil shale, and the so-called Canadian “tar sands.”  Production of these alternative oil sources creates two to five times the amount of C02 gases as compared to conventional oil extraction.  The synthetic oil production in the tar sands is also known for causing widespread environmental degradation, according to the NRDC.

So now the NRDC is publicly pressuring each North American airline to commit to its “Cool Fuels” pledge and not use synthetic jet fuel.  For more information on the tar sands, see www.stopdirtyfuels.org.

Supposedly there is as much synthetic oil in the Canadian tar sands as there is crude oil in all of Saudi Arabia.  As we try to wean ourselves off of oil from hostile countries, expect that the tar sands will finally get the public attention they deserve.

By Stefan Deeran at The Element Agency in New York

American Airlines, one of the world’s largest carriers, was supposed to roll out a new green marketing campaign sometime in this past August according to Environmental Leader. Aviation accounts for around 5% of total greenhouse gas emissions and the industry is growing by about 3% per year. If you read AA’s environmental report, you will see that their previous efforts have focused on recycling and fuel conservation.

Perhaps AA needed to rethink their green marketing strategy in light of the high profile protests at London’s Heathrow Airport this August. A group called Camp for Climate Action got hundreds of people to try and stop air travel as well as prevent the expansion of Heathrow. Their signs had slogans such as “You Fly, They Die,” according to BBC reports.

It will be interesting to see how the industry reacts. Geneva Switzerland is hosting the third Aviation and the Environment Summit, to be held April 2008 to hash out some solutions and coordinate their strategy. All the major players will be there. But can the industry wait that long to respond?

By Stefan Deeran at The Element Agency in New York