Rachel Stewart

Aviation emissions are quickly forgotten when cheap holiday deals are on offer

In terms of climate change, the last thing Hawaii needs is another visitor. Yet, along with tens of thousands of others, here I am. As I write I’m perfecting the look of a beached whale dying of humidity poisoning. I’m told the weather is relatively cool right now. Tell my blowhole that.

For Hawaii, tourism is the Big Kahuna. Just like the global insurance industry, the world’s tourism gurus generally accept and deeply comprehend the implications of what’s coming. The thought of losing money, rather than making tons of it, does rather tend to focus the collective neoliberal mind.

Accordingly, the Hawaiian Tourism Authority funded a study called “Climate Change Impacts In Hawaii: A Summary Of Climate Change And Its Impacts To Hawaii’s Ecosystems And Communities”. Among the lowlights, of which there are plenty, the study projects that higher average temperatures will cause a surge of heat-related diseases such as dengue fever and cholera, along with higher levels of invasive species.

A decrease in trade winds will disrupt rainfall patterns creating both drought and heavy flooding, while warmer oceans and higher ocean acidity will trigger coral bleaching, marine migration and markedly affect the ocean’s circulation.

Many of these processes are well under way. Sea level rise is already impacting all the islands, and famous Waikiki Beach. Predictions are that the hotel strip will be lost to the sea within the next few decades.

So, just like New Zealand, the very industry that is their biggest earner — tourism — also relies on the exact same industry that is, relative to its size, disproportionately contributing to climate change: aviation. Yet it’s the one thing that of many us do — me included — without so much as backward glance at the emissions we’re helping to create. I bounded on to the shiny new Dreamliner with gusto, holding thoughts of sun and sand firmly in my little, child-like mind. We all do it.

I don’t believe the claim by many airlines that they are reducing their carbon footprint with technological innovations such as aircraft design