Cycling, peacemaking, environmental justice, freedom, responsibility, and sometimes whimsy
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Environmental fairness video
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
John
I happen to know that Our Lady of The Airways school was closed in 2004 at least four years before you made your video. The closest school to Pearson is over 2 kms. away at 3470 Clara Drive.
Environmental equity will get a huge boost within five years when the effects of peak oil pricing starts to effect the cost of flying
The health of all people is important and the convenience of 6% of the world's population that fly should take second place to the health of the 94% of the population that can't afford to fly
Thanks for pointing out that Our Lady of the Airways has closed, but you have your numbers wrong; at least one school, Briarcrest in Rexdale, sits within 2km of Pearson. But calculating the distance between a school or house and airport distorts the situation; flight paths outside the airport affect the surrounding area just as much, and several Pearson flight paths go pretty well directly over homes and schools (corresponding flight paths for Toronto City Centre Airport go over water).
As for peak oil, don't count on it. The Americans have already announced that they expect Jet-A from algae will cost less than the fuel currently derived from petroleum. I suspect we will have to deal with the question of how best to share the costs as well as the benefits of air travel for some time.
As for your other statistic; first, I do not believe that anything like 94% of the world's population cannot afford to fly. In any case, the exact number of people who can afford to fly has little relevance. Even people who cannot afford to fly benefit from the knowledge and freedom that our civilization, which inevitably relies on air travel, makes possible.
2 comments:
John
I happen to know that Our Lady of The Airways school was closed in 2004 at least four years before you made your video. The closest school to Pearson is over 2 kms. away at 3470 Clara Drive.
Environmental equity will get a huge boost within five years when the effects of peak oil pricing starts to effect the cost of flying
The health of all people is important and the convenience of 6% of the world's population that fly should take second place to the health of the 94% of the population that can't afford to fly
Thanks for pointing out that Our Lady of the Airways has closed, but you have your numbers wrong; at least one school, Briarcrest in Rexdale, sits within 2km of Pearson. But calculating the distance between a school or house and airport distorts the situation; flight paths outside the airport affect the surrounding area just as much, and several Pearson flight paths go pretty well directly over homes and schools (corresponding flight paths for Toronto City Centre Airport go over water).
As for peak oil, don't count on it. The Americans have already announced that they expect Jet-A from algae will cost less than the fuel currently derived from petroleum. I suspect we will have to deal with the question of how best to share the costs as well as the benefits of air travel for some time.
As for your other statistic; first, I do not believe that anything like 94% of the world's population cannot afford to fly. In any case, the exact number of people who can afford to fly has little relevance. Even people who cannot afford to fly benefit from the knowledge and freedom that our civilization, which inevitably relies on air travel, makes possible.
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