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Comment by cochne | Hacker News Reader

So people polluting the atmosphere will actually have to pay for that? Oh the humanity!

Nope, airline travel is 2-2.5% of all greenhouse emissions.

All the coal we burn is at least 10 times that. If we stopped burning coal it would actually make a difference. Air travel is a rounding error in comparison.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/27/coal-consumption-hit-an-all-...

Heh, so we do nothing because most things are just <5% of emissions?

Can I have 2% of your bank account? It's just a rounding error right?

To keep it simple, 10 years of burning coal is 100 years of aviation.

100 years of coal is 1000 years of aviation.

And with your analogy, if I have 100,000 dollars and I give you $2000, I still have almost $100,000. If I give you $20,000, that’s going to make a dent. Repeat 4 more times and I’m broke.

Any of that sinking in?

It’s really important that people understand because they’re literally driving us into a climate disaster.

2% here, 1% there, 0.5% here, and before you know it--its a 10% reduction.

There is no panacea to solving this issue.

Maybe it would help if we went with the bathtub filling up analogy and greenhouse gases.

https://scied.ucar.edu/video/modeling-carbon-dioxide-bathtub

Would you try to empty the tub with a spoon or bucket?

We don't have buckets, so we must use the spoons available for now.

It’s 3% and growing quickly. Also that’s only the burning of kerosene, it excludes extraction and refining as well as all the support services air travel requires.

And it will grow even more if other sources of emissions are reduced

Also, for power generation we have greener alternatives. For aviation we don't.

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