CRISS-CROSSED SUMMER SKIES
5 August 2006

I am onboard an early summer flight when I realise that flying on a sunny day is not as pretty as it should be, or as it used to be. I am in the airspace somewhere above and between London and Amsterdam. Skies are criss-crossed with thick black arrows going east or west, on different levels with varying distances in between. Sometimes my plane is close enough for me to see the name of another airliner and it is indeed a slightly scary sight. Luckily I can not see the passengers’ faces or what paper they were reading, for that matter.

With these criss-cross skies in mind, it is not difficult to be pleased with the Swedish Parliament’s recent decision to introduce an environment tax resulting in lowcost airlines reducing the number of flights to and from Sweden. For example, Ryanair cancelled flights to some Swedish airports and heavily reducing its flights to other. Ryanair already flies to Marrakech, perhaps instead of to Stockholm where many people will lose their job - but Moroccans will happily welcome the new job opportunities.

Do not get me wrong. I am a pro-low-cost airlines kind of person – flying should not be exclusive to those people who will pay ridiculous amounts to fly within Europe. Despite the fact that I will pay more for tickets, in my opinion it is a fair enough policy. It is a brave initiative taken for the sake of our environment-instead of only talking about the state of it and complaining about our hotter-than-ever-heat-wave-summers. I hope that more governments will take similar measures. It is a global challenge – unfortunately CO2 does not stay within national boundaries, not even within the European Union. It is frightening to think that it is acceptable to go on as many exotic holidays you wish without thinking about that fact that a Jumbojet flying from Europe to e.g. Thailand uses as much fuel per person as one average car uses during an entire year.

I recently heard on the BBC about an initiative in the UK suggesting the introduction of CO2 credit cards. Your card would translate every purchase you do into CO2 emission points and you would only be allowed a certain number of points. This would, of course, put our freedom in question, but then again if we want to leave an inhabitable planet for future generations, maybe it is a price worth paying. It works with money - so why not with CO2?