So how does one reconcile that sentiment, which comes from a new report by the British Airline Pilots’ Association, with this and this and this and this. (Frankly, I can keep going with the links.) Well, Greenpeace doesn’t even make an attempt, calling the report “pure propaganda,” according to the BBC. BALPA, which says it represents 85 percent of Britain’s 10,000 airline pilots, claims trains and ships are also big sources of carbon dioxide, yet they don’t receive the scrutiny that airplanes do when it comes to emissions. 

"Yet no-one is calling for restrictions on high speed train travel or for an end to ocean cruises,” Mervyn Granshaw, Chairman of BALPA, said in a press release. “And no-one is calling for any dramatic cutback in car travel, the biggest polluter of all transport modes. In the UK we are embarked on another major road building programme.

“Air travel has just been an easy target. But not any more.”

BAPLA’s message, it could probably go without saying, is self-serving. And it sure is going against prevailing sentiments, which are already influencing air travelers’ behavior—and the practices of some airlines. The report comes on the heels of last week’s announcement by easyJet of a model for an “ecoJet,” a plane that would reportedly cut carbon emissions by 50 percent and nitrogen by 75 percent. If all goes according to plan, the ecoJet will enter service by 2015.

Related on World Hum:
* Q&A with Mark Ellingham: Rough Guides and the Ethics of Travel
* What’s the True Cost of Travel? Excerpts From ‘The Final Call’
* Long-Distance Travel: ‘The Catch-22 of Nature-Based Tourism’
* Green Travel: ‘Who’s Scamming, Who’s Legit and How Do We Tell the Difference?’

Photo of plane over the Andes by phoosh via Flickr, (Creative Commons).