Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
becomes not just a matter of political negotiation but a profound challenge to the
way in which we live our lives.
Much will need to change as we shift away from our dependence on a carbon
economy. Cost internalization and energy taxes will have a key role to play in the move
to relocalize our economies. That doesn't mean putting an end to all international
trade; but it does mean limiting the unnecessary transport of goods by trying to meet
as many of our basic needs as possible from closer to home.
And individual habits will have to change, too, as we weigh the economic bene-
fits of aviation against its longer-term environmental (and hence, ultimately, also
economic) costs, and squarely address the argument that air travel has undoubtedly
brought a new freedom to many people.
But democratic government is, in the last analysis, about drawing lines between
different freedoms. Against one person's freedom to fly, we have to balance another's
freedom to be free of noise and nuisance and pollution - and, ultimately, the free-
dom to act in the knowledge that there will be a healthy future not only today, but
in years to come.
References
EC (1999)
Air Transport and the Environment
, Communication from the Commission to the
Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Com-
mittee of the Regions, Brussels, 1 December, COM (1999) 640
RCEP (1994)
Transport and the Environment
, 18th Report of the Royal Commission on
Environmental Pollution, Cm 2674, RCEP, London
S
USTAINABLE
AVIATION
:
WHAT
DO
YOU
MEAN
?
Mark McLellan, Partner, GreenAscent
sustainable (adj):
1
Capable of being borne or endured; supportable, bearable.
2
Capable of being upheld or defended; maintainable.
3
Capable of being maintained at a certain rate or level
(Simpson
and Weiner, 1989).
Every now and then, environmental policy adopts a new word. E O Wilson's 'bio-
diversity' (Wilson, 1987) irritated many life science professionals in the 1980s; but
since there was no other word to describe 'the whole variety of life on earth', it reso-
nated in the media, persisted and is now mainstream. Like the word or not, bio-
diversity is useful shorthand with a clear meaning.
Compare biodiversity's word journey to that of 'sustainability'. The
Oxford English
Dictionary
meaning of the word and its synonyms is clear enough (Simpson and
Weiner, 1989), but when linked to 'development', or to emerging environmental and
social policy, confusion sets in. Far from being defined, sustainability is subject to a
wide range of general and specific interpretations (Upham, 2000). The current debate
on the future of aviation is a good example of how the semantics of sustainability
