Nude planes?

Friends of the Earth's Big Ask campaign, having successfully lobbied in support of the Climate Change Bill in the UK parliament (the first of its kind in the world) has now moved its focus onto making sure that aviation is included in the bill...for some reason at present its not in there. Now why might that be?

; )

Could it be because the UK's addiction to short-haul flights means that aviation actually makes up 13% of UK carbon emissions, as opposed to the 2% of international emissions the industry would prefer you to think about? Either way it seems somewhat bonkers to exclude aviation as one of the fastest growing sources of carbon emissions from the Bill.

Almost 200,000 campaigners have already signed up in support and you can book your seat on the 'virtual' flight to lobby parliament here. I'm in seat 200G if you want to sit nearby (!) and fellow passengers include Thom Yorke, Vic Reeves and KT Tunstall - although you'd be hard pushed to get a spot close enough to touch thighs with these popular types.

There's also a slightly weird series of viral clips including this bizarre 'stripper plane' visiting Parliament...not sure WHAT that's all about...

You can also watch the video below...

Flying on a wing and a prayer...

Well there's yet more corroboration today for some of the issues I've been banging on about in regard to the climate impacts of aviation as reported here on the BBC. The news item covers a report issued by the UK's Sustainable Development Commission on the future of aviation called 'Breaking the Holding Pattern'.

The essence of the report focuses on the 'over-egged' economic justifications for airport and aviation expansion and how much these really benefit the UK and casts doubt on the ability of technological innovation in the aviation industry to reduce carbon emissions in the face of wildly spiralling demand. Crucially however it cites the massive gap opening up in the UK economy due to the 'tourist deficit' whereby fuelled by the growth in cheap flights UK holidaymakers spend £18 billion more abroad than incoming tourists spend in the UK...a huge drain in the context of the current credit crunch. It would seem that 'Buying British' while holidaying on our wonderfully diverse set of islands is not only good for the country its good for the whole planet.

100 Best Travel Blogs...

Well, I'm mighty proud to have been included in this here list of the Best 100 Travel Blogs...someone has clearly been busy googling...

; )

My only slight concern is the name of the host domain 'www.airlinecreditcards.com' (I'm not going to give them the satisfaction of a live link) which is a site entirely dedicated to giving people free air miles on their credit cards...the fact that they list www.lowcarbontravel.com on the top 100 just goes to show these folk have no sense of irony. Spend your way to climate oblivion with us!