Ever wonder if life is just a prelude to the sweet release of death, especially when strapped into a tin can soaring 35,000 feet above the ground? Well, ponder no more because flying, dear friends, is likely the most environmentally guilty pleasure in our last dance on this dying planet.
While brooding over life choices that led me here—writing while contemplating my mortality—I stumbled across a morbidly fun fact: a single flight from New York to San Francisco belts out more carbon dioxide per head than an entire year of living for someone in Cameroon. Seriously, how are we not just a species of Mephistopheles in tourist shorts?
Enter the White House, led by President Biden, spearheading a new crusade to cleanse the filth from our sky-travel. This week, something about new guidelines for jet fuel emerged—fuel that might use corn-based ethanol. Really? Corn? Next, they’ll be proposing we fuel jets with the power of prayer or my overflowing existential dread.
For those in the loop, using ethanol is as divisive as choosing between saving the Titanic with a teacup. But hell, it's been a part of our gasoline mix for ages, so why not sky rocket it as well?
Before I book my one-way ticket off this doomed rock, let’s muse over why our flying habits are turning Mother Nature into an angry mother-in-law. The answer, my soon-to-be-departed reader, is that too much of anything is bad; and in the case of flying, it's disastrously, apocalyptically bad.
So next time you consider flying, remember: the Grim Reaper travels economy, and he’s racking up those frequent flyer miles. Just like us, he seems destined to die alone in a sky filled with corny fuel.
Based on the original article "Making Flying Cleaner".
