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Kitchen Table Kibitzing: Flying the Friendly Skies? [1]

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Date: 2023-04-13  

I’d been flying quite a bit between 2010 and 2014, overseas but also many, many trips back east to see my ailing parents. It was sometime during this period, on the last few flights I took from SFO to JFK that I recall how frequently we were experiencing air turbulence. I remember thinking at the time “This must be related to climate change” and wondering what it portended for the future of air travel. Perhaps inhospitable skies would force the industry to its knees well before we had advanced to the point where passengers were taking the news about climate change seriously enough to cut back on their air travel.

FLight Free USA points out that air travel is one of the most polluting things we can do. According to a NYT article:

Air travel accounts for about 4 percent of human-induced global warming, and the United Nations warns that airplane emissions are set to triple by 2050. Planes are becoming more efficient, but our appetite for air travel is outpacing the industry's environmental gains.

But back to this turbulence. The New York Times article Fasten Your Seatbelts: What You Need to Know About Turbulence, reports that climate change is increasing the amount and severity of turbulence because currents are disturbed by higher CO2 emissions. Incidents could triple by 2100.

… turbulence can toss passengers and crew members around, potentially causing grave injuries. Multiple experts emphasized that staying seated and keeping your seatbelt on as much as possible during flights were the best ways to reduce risks. “If you stay fastened you’re far less likely to incur an injury,” said Thomas Guinn, a professor of applied aviation sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Perhaps the most frightening aspect of air turbulence is that pilots are not always able to determine when they will encounter it. It can often not be picked up by radar and is not always visible. There have been several deaths reported due to high turbulence. Recently, a Lufthansa flight diverted to Virginia after several passengers were injured due to extreme air turbulence.

NPR reports that wind shear is responsible for the growing indicence of clear-air turbulence which involve “sudden changes in wind speed and direction — at altitudes above 15,000 feet.” The jet stream is experiencing more wind shear as levels of GHGs increase.

In March, Ingrid Weisse, her husband and two young sons were aboard Alaska Airlines 889 from Portland, Ore., on a flight home to Hawaii when the Boeing 737 began buffeting so fiercely that it felt as if the plane would shake itself apart. "It got really, really violent," says Weisse. There was lots of screaming in the cabin. A flight attendant was hit by an ice bucket that became a projectile. So many people got sick from the sudden changes in altitude that flight attendants had to hand out more vomit bags, she says. Midway through the approximately 45-minute ordeal, one frightened passenger yelled out, "Please tell us this is normal!"

Turbulence is classified as light, moderate, severe, and extreme. “In cases of extreme turbulence, pilots can lose control of the airplane and there can even be structural damage to the aircraft, according to the National Weather Service, the Times reports.

My daughter is an example of someone who has a job that involves a significant amount of air travel. She works remotely for the CDC but has to fly back to their headquarters quarterly for meetings. She also flies once or twice a year to visit sites in Africa. The agency does its best to promote remote working but the very nature of their work involves in person interaction with the communities they are involved with.

Flight Free USA invites individuals to sign a pledge that they will be an infrequent flyer in 2023, quit flying altogether, or not fly while we are in a state of climate emergency. So far, less than 500 people have signed on.

What about you? Can you commit to one of these pledges? How often do you fly? Do you have to fly for work? Have you experienced increased turbulence?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/13/2163140/-Kitchen-Table-Kibitzing-Flying-the-Friendly-Skies

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