4 — Wednesday, February 5, 1992 — North Shore News Emissions threaten frequent ilyer IT WAS exactly the news Frequent Flyers (and even we merely nearly-frequent flyers) didn’t want to hear: nitrogen oxide exhaust fumes from jets might be having 30 times the impact on the atmosphere as the same amount of simi- lar emissions released at ground level. Never mind the might be, un- deubtedly arc! The study, published in a recent issue of the distinguished scientific journal Nature, must have sent a shudder through the airline in- dustry, just as it sent a shudder through me. It didn’t do muck for the col- lective calm of the mighty tourism industry itself either, 1’m sure. Tourism is one of the biggest hard-currency earners in the world. There are plenty of little countries that couldn’t survive without it. One is tempted to make light of. this disastrous piece of apparent data, if only as a means of cop- ing. There goes my Acroplan card! Might as well throw out the Last Minute Club card too. And while I’m at it, the 8ahamas Treasure Card looks fairly useless in the long run. I mean, if you can’t fly to some of these places, forget it. Who has the time? Of course this was just a study published in a scientific journal, albeit a prestigious one (one of the most prestigious in the world, ac- tually), and its conclusions have yet to be carved in stone, but a group of British scientists has calculated that the world’s jet air- craft fleet contributes ‘roughly as much’? to global warming as all other sources of nitrogen oxide Bocb Hunter STRICTLY PERSONAL _ emissions combined, meaning ali cars, trucks, homes and factories on the surface of planet Earth. Previous computer models in- dicating a lower impact were sim- ply wrong. Oops, there you go! World Doomed By Computer Slip. I knew it would happen like that... Nitrogen oxide (NO2) has been linked to everything from dying forests to decreased pulmonary function, with the added twist that NO2 is an important greenhouse gas that works extremely efficient- ly to trap the sun’s heat. The difference between NO2 be- ing spurted into the atmosphere at Waterfront Directions Study made available at WV library OVER A year has been invested in discussions with the community to come up with West Vancouver's new Waterfront Directions Study, a plan focusing on the waterfront at and between Ambieside and Dundarave. “As a concept plan, it is subject to review and therefore more community consultation,” said Ald. Diana Hutchinson. Hutchinson moved the receipt of the study and its referral to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission and the Advisory Planning Commission at Monday. SOLID WEST VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL night’s West Vancouver District Council meeting. Copies of the study can be viewed at the West Vancouver Memorial Library and will be iaade available to participants in the study process. “This is not a blueprint for a plan, but a compilation of what the stakeholders want,’’ Ald. An- dy Danyliu said. ORK } UALITY PTY FURNIT raopm. SAT. gam-Spm, ground level and at the typical cruising altitude of seven miies is that, up there, the nitrogen oxide is transformed by intense sunlight into ozone molecules. The famous ozone layer itself, the protective bubble around the planet that screens out excessive ultraviolet radiation from the sun, is eight miles higher yet. Without it, we wouldn’t exist in anything . like our current form, and it is a moot point whether life would be possible at all. Yea ozone molecules! Unfortunately, at the lower levels of the atmosphere, ozone’s benevolent role is reversed. It transmogrifies into smog. The megaproblem thus pres- ented is that we are depleting the upper protective layer of ozone while choking the atmosphere below with too much of the same substance. Alas, rather than floating up- ward where they might help for- tify the weakening ozone shield (being gnawed away, as we all know, by CFCs), the ozone molecules formed from: jet exhaust settle earthward, adding to the poisonous chemical stew below. Jet aircraft only contribute 3% of total global nitrogen oxide emissions, but if that amount is truly to be magnified 30 times, as the authors of the study in Nature contend, the contribution of the airlines becomes one of the major factors in the Greenhouse Effect. Except for a slight cooling in- duced by flyash from Mount habits 46&...the world’s jet aircraft fleet contributes “roughly as much” to global warming as all cther sources of nitgrogen oxide emissions combined... 99 Pinabuto in the Philippines, 199i would have been the hottest year on record, following the upward global temperature curve estab- lished in the ’80s. No one of independent scientific repute is denying the planetary warming trend any longer, they are merely quibbling over what it means. It’s probably just a question of how long it will take the climatological apocalypse to hap- pen, and what its severity will be, although events like the Mount Pinabuto volcano ought to remind us that the best-developed trend line can be bent out of shape at any time without a minute’s notice. Still, putting even the best face on it, the fact remains that the airline industry is at risk in the same way that a Ict of other in- dustries, from forestry to fisheries to uranium mining are. For the good of the environ- ment, they have to clean up their acts — an expeasive demand com- ing at a bad time. A ‘‘demand”’ that can quickly become an order, no matter how extensive the damage to industry. In the crunch, the biosphere’s in- tegrity is more vital than anything. With pace-setting California al- ready having approved strict new standards for control of fuel emissions on the ground, and the United Nations applauding the concept of a legislated 20% recluc- tion in fossil fue! use by the end of the century, it won’t be just the automotive and energy industries finding themselves being strait- jacketed by ecological considera- tions. The airlines are going to have to learn to be “‘sky-friendly,"” In a country like Canada, which probably makes more use of planes per capita than any other, giving up the jet habit will be a hard, painful step. Ihave a bad, bad feeling that the Golden Age of Jet Travel is behind us. Hope I’m wrong. 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