Ruined by tourists

IT’S welcome news that environmentalists are trying to halt airport expansion in the UK, but air travel is only one part of the worldwide expansion of tourism that is causing great harm to our planet.

At any international airport, you will see large groups of nationalities on the move around the world who only a few years back would not have been able to afford travel outside their own country.

Who are we in the West to tell these new adventurers not to travel in order to save the planet?

For more than 50 years I’ve been lucky to travel every year to Sri Lanka, one of the most beautiful islands in the world.

Travelling around used to be on rickshaw or bicycle on dirt roads, but now it’s all cars and traffic jams. This once beautiful tropical island is now not much different from Malaga or Benidorm.

GERALD GANNAWAY, Bristol. I CAN see how encouraging additional flights can add to climate deterioration. But I imagine the development of electric planes are a long way behind electric cars.

I’m often one of the unfortunates that, near the end of a 24-hour flight, spends another hour or two flying around in circles over London due to congestion at Heathrow. Has anyone factored in the impact of this on air pollution?

ERIC BREMNER, Coventry.