Extreme Temperature Diary- Thursday November 23rd, 2023/Main Topic: Thanksgiving Holiday Flying Remains a Climate Problem

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The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉

Main Topic: Thanksgiving Holiday Flying Remains a Climate Problem

Dear Diary. Happy Thanksgiving one and all. During the holidays we all want to physically be close to the ones we love. In our society, mostly due to new families finding jobs well away from where they were originally brought up, people jet back and forth to reunite with loved ones, especially during the holidays. The urge for parents to unite their kids with their parents so that relationships between grandparents and grandkids is particularly strong. People must get together at least a few times a year to build healthy relationships among generations making up families. Unfortunately, this is a problem during this day and age of the climate crisis.

During the height of the covid pandemic hardly anyone flew in 2020. Fast forward three years and flying is more popular than ever and will become even more so since I’m beginning to see a trend of airfare prices going down. Flying accounts for about 2.5% of carbon emissions. I urge the powers that be to quickly phase out jet aircraft with electrics. Technologically, we can’t do this yet with transcontinental flights and those going more than a few thousand miles, so I urge the Biden Administration to invest heavily in electric flying engine and battery research, more than they are probably committed to.

For very conscious families wanting to make a sacrifice, a zoom holiday meal would be an option, but there is nothing like a traditional Thanksgiving family feast. We must diligently work so that this tradition won’t die because of necessities brought about by the climate crisis.

Here is more from the Washington Post:

The pandemic could have changed flying. Three years on, things are back to normal. – The Washington Post

After the pandemic, Americans are flying again in force. Here’s why that’s a problem.

More than three years after the coronavirus upended air travel, passengers are back in force

By Shannon Osaka

Updated November 23, 2023 at 1:12 p.m. EST

Travelers pass through Chicago O’Hare International Airport as Thanksgiving holiday travel headed into full swing on Tuesday. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

In the spring of 2020, as the coronavirus swept over the globe, air travel disappeared. Airlines flew empty “ghost flights” to retain airport slots. Airport terminals were deserted. And the planet-warming emissions from aviation also plummeted — to less than half their 2019 levels.

As the pandemic wore on, workers grew accustomed to Zoom meetings and virtual conferences; families opted to take driving trips instead of getting on cross-country flights. Some climate experts and activists wondered if the shift in transportation would have long-term effects — transforming the way Americans travel for work and vacation.

But now, 3½ years on, Americans’ love of flying has fully returned. Last month, the Transportation Security Administration logged 75.5 million passengers passing through airports in the United States — more than the 72 million who traveled in October of 2019. The TSA expects 30 million passengers to travel over the Thanksgiving holiday period alone. Globally, the International Civil Aviation Organization expects 2023’s passenger demand to outpace 2019’s by about 3 percent.

Experts say the social norms around travel, the desire to maintain connections with distant family and friends, and the relative convenience of air travel keep Americans flying. And as aviation returns, any hope of a lasting decrease in emissions from flying is disappearing — at least until technology improves.

Some aspects of flying don’t seem to have returned entirely; analysts say business travel, for example, has not fully returned to pre-pandemic levels and is unlikely to do so until next year. But traveling for vacation and other leisure activities has increased to offset the number of meetings now occurring via Zoom and other platforms. That’s similar to airline shocks of the past — after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and 2008 financial crisis, leisure travel was the first to rebound, while business travel took much longer.

Flying is responsible for approximately 2.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions but about 3.5 percent of the human-caused warming every year — because of the way planes affect the chemical composition of the sky. That might seem like a small amount, but by 2050, aviation emissions could triple — as countries develop and more people are able to afford flights.

Last year at a gathering of the International Civil Aviation Organization, nearly 200 nations pledged to achieve net-zero emissions in the aircraft sector by 2050. But at the moment, there is no truly “green” method of flying: Carbon offsets aren’t reliable, and the ramp-up of sustainable aviation fuels has been slow. The agreement also doesn’t include interim goals for 2030 or 2040 — or say how much individual nations have to cut back their aviation emissions.

Some people passionate about climate change and the environment — including some climate scientists — have signed pledges to cut back on, or entirely give up, flying. (While aviation is a small part of global climate emissions, it can be the largest part of an individual’s carbon footprint.)

But in a country like the United States, there are few easy alternatives. A study by the International Council on Clean Transportation found that if the country invested in high-speed rail, 54 percent of domestic flights could be replaced by train travel. But the country’s fastest train at the moment — Amtrak’s Acela from Boston to D.C. — operates at only half the speed of high-speed rail in other countries. California’s planned high-speed rail from San Francisco to Los Angeles, approved by state voters in 2008, still doesn’t have a planned opening date.

Dan Rutherford, program director for aviation and marine programs at the International Council on Clean Transportation, says the return to air travel is proceeding essentially as expected — but that’s not great news for those hoping to see a decrease in emissions. “We’re unlikely to achieve net-zero aviation emissions by 2050 if people resume flying like they did before covid,” he wrote in an email. “Strong policy interventions will be needed.”

Kevin Crowe contributed to this report.

More on climate change

Understanding our climate: Global warming is a real phenomenon, and weather disasters are undeniably linked to it. As temperatures rise, heat waves are more often sweeping the globe — and parts of the world are becoming too hot to survive.

What can be done? The Post is tracking a variety of climate solutions, as well as the Biden administration’s actions on environmental issues. It can feel overwhelming facing the impacts of climate change, but there are ways to cope with climate anxiety.

Inventive solutions: Some people have built off-the-grid homes from trash to stand up to a changing climate. As seas rise, others are exploring how to harness marine energy.

What about your role in climate change? Our climate coach Michael J. Coren is answering questions about environmental choices in our everyday lives. Submit yours here. You can also sign up for our Climate Coach newsletter.

Here are more “ET’s” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:

Here is More Climate and Weather News from Thursday:

(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)

Today’s News on Sustainable Energy, Traditional Polluting Energy from Fossil Fuel, and the Green Revolution:

More from the Weather Department:

More on the Environment and Nature:

More on Other Science and the Beauty of Earth and this Universe:

If you like these posts and my work on record temperature ratios, please contribute via my PayPal widget on this site. Thanks in advance for any support. 

Guy Walton… “The Climate Guy”

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