SUSTAINABILITY WITHIN A GENERATION FOR THE AVIATION INDUSTRY IN THE CASCADIA BIOREGION:
A Citizen Sustainable Aviation Perspective and Plan of Action
October 25, 2007
By Frans C. Verhagen, M. Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., Environmental/sustainability sociologist, President, metro New York coalition of sustainable aviation groups and of its national organization Citizen Aviation Watch, USA, Inc.; Sustainability Fellow, Green Institute, Washington, D.C.; Adjunct Associate Professor of Sustainable Aviation at Vaugh College; Director, Sustainability Research and Education at Earth and Peace Education Associates International.
I am honored to have been invited to this Sustainable Cascadia Bioregion with its national reputation of being in the forefront on sustainability thinking and practice. I hope that my contribution about sustainable aviation in the overall theme of sustainability within a generation will be a useful one.
INTRODUCTION
The term that characterizes the regional, national and international aviation industry the best is the term GROWTH. Another similar term is EXPANSION which is characterized at growth at all costs.
To understand this expansionistic syndrome we have to point to the growthism syndrome in the international economic system that enriches the few, impoverishes the many and endangers the planet. It is this larger context within which the citizen sustainable aviation movement has to see its efforts for sustainable aviation policies, programs and projects and for sustaining futures of people and planet.
Another important cause of growthism in the aviation industry is the "predict and provide" approach where industry, particularly the larger airframe manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus predict growth rates and where governments provide expanded capacity based upon those projections.
This growthism syndrome and its associated expansionistic mindset is probably the best epitomized by the president and CEA of the ATA, the American Air Transportation Association which represents 90% of the US airlines. Its weekly, of course free, newsletter ATA Smart Briefs makes it very clear that any FAA or DOT regulation that restricts their operations in any way is solidly opposed. Its position is that airport capacity has to be expanded and, therefore, it solidly and joyously support the National Air Space Redesign Program of which we in the metro NY area are feeling the full impact and which will come to the Cascadia region in due time. Time does not permit me to read the September 27 letter to DOT Secretary Mary Peters by Mr. James May, the ATA president and CEO.
In short his airlines "remain solidly opposed to congestion pricing as a solution to congestion and flight delays." It is a tax which, according to Mr. May, DOT and FAA are not authorized to levy; it raises prices that certain classes cannot afford to pay and to top it all, he asserts that the flying public does not want any restrictions. The fight over the flight schedules at congested JFK during the last three months shows that the DOT and FAA finally are somewhat standing up to the airlines that are unwilling to compromise their scheduling during their peak hours of operations at JFK.
Of course, the citizen sustainable aviation movement that represent airports such as JFK are not invited as part of the stakeholders' deliberations. We have been clamoring to keep the high density rule which would have prevented the present congestion and delays.
This expansionistic mindset is also present in the Cascadia region, not only in the operators of its major airports and executives of Boeing, but also in the council members of and consultants to the town of Paine. Their expansionistic mindsets also is evidenced in their arguments of jobs, economic development, etc. Thus, the Op-Ed page article by Hans Toorens of the Seattle Times of September 19 clearly shows this expansionistic and growthism mindset when they are pushing their proposed airport expansion in Paine UNDER the heading NO PAINE, NO GAIN
The argument runs like this:
"Air transportation has been developed and accepted by worldwide communities as one of the most efficient modes of transportation and infrastructure in support of economic growth, tourism and prosperity. Cities and regions implementing commercial-airline capabilities have historically enjoyed above-average economic and employment growth."
Statements like this and the general discourse of an expansionistic aviation industry have to be countered by squarely proposing the sustainable aviation perspective: air transportation is not the most efficient one, particularly not on short-haul distances of some 500 miles; it is, however, a premium mode of transportation which has to be matched with premium uses such as crossing an ocean; it surely is not the most efficient for short distances, because its complicated technology is generally 4-10 more energy intensive than surface modes of transportation; it may create jobs but at what social and ecological costs, particularly in these troubled times of the climate crisis. The social and economic costs of the noise and air pollution are not counted and if they were as they should aviation per passenger mile will be far more costly than an efficient intermodal surface network of trains, of coaches, inter-city rail etc.An enormous challenge for the citizen sustainable aviation movement in the Cascadia region is the presence of Boeing. It is one of the main actors in the expansion of the industry, not only by its production of new planes such as the 787 Dreamliner, but also by its earlier mentioned forecasting which leads the federal government to provide capacity, mostly at taxpayers dollars. Boeing is an essential part of the "predict and provide" mechanism that makes both the civil and military aviation industry expand, expand, and expand.
Having very briefly sketched the context of an expansionistic international, national and regional aviation industry which behaves as if there is no tomorrow with an ever increasing emergency of the climate crisis, we now have to ask ourselves how this aviation industry can be forced to become sustainable within a generation in the Cascadia region, so that the industry can be fitted into David Suzuki's Sustainability within a Generation goal for the Cascadia region.
I want to answer this important question during this Convergence 2007 by briefly describing first what a sustainable aviation mindset or perspective is and, secondly, by applying that perspective to the several dimensions of a regional sustainable aviation and sustainable transportation policy, program and projects. In the course of discussing these applications many of the demands that are part of the TEN SUSTAINABLE AVIATION DEMANDS will be touched upon. At the appropriate time I will refer to the number of the demand in your handout.
My remarks can be divided into two main sections: the development of a sustainable aviation perspective and a plan of action for the Cascadia region. The plan of action spells out four major challenges and a large number of policies, programs and projects under the headings of eight dimensions or levels. They are in rank order: the moral, political, legal, ecological, economic, educational, media and military levels.
THE SUSTAINABLE AVIATION PERSPECTIVE
So, what is the sustainable aviation perspective that we, as citizens, have to develop and apply by pressuring the aviation industry and the different levels of politicians? Do we as citizens have to develop a different perspective from government and business? Why? Are we not all members of the same society and thus pursue the same goals? These are important philosophical questions about which disagreement exists among members of citizen sustainable aviation movement. One major group believes in a reformist approach, while the other, proposed here, believes in a transformational approach to aviation issues and dilemmas.
In order to be assured of the correctness of transformational approach of contextual sustainability approach, let me place this approach in a historical context of the sustainability revolution.
It was during the early seventies that in publications such as Limits to Growth--a frontal assault on the growthism syndrome by pointing to limits of various resources and services--the idea of sustainability was raised. Unlike its conception in the eighties, the seventies had an integrated view on sustainability. It was considered the integration of the social, economic and ecological dimensions. In the nineties and presently sustainability is most often considered to be ecological sustainability. In the development of our sustainable aviation perspective we are enhancing the earlier, seventies conception of an integrated sustainability conception, called contextual sustainability.
In this transformational view of a sustainable aviation perspective four values stand out: Environmental sustainability; Economic efficiency or sustainability; accountability and equity. These four values are integrated in a framework called the contextual sustainability framework. Therefore, this framework integrates environmental and economic sustainability in the context of social justice, intergenerational equity, active non-violence and participatory decision-making.
Social justice here is considered to be both distributional and procedural justice. This means that benefits and burdens of aviation are fairly shared and that decisions are made with the input of all stakeholders. Another term for the latter type of social justice is participatory decision-making. These values are placed within the larger concentric circle of a biocentric approach, as described in the concepts of bioregionalism, cosmogenesis and biocentrism. The diagram on slide 6 shows the centrality of ecological integrity with its surrounding circles of values and foundational assumptions. A fuller description of this framework that to a great extent is based upon the integrated social and ecological values of the Earth Charter can be found at my organization's website www.globalepe.org and is published in Wenden 2004 "Educating for A Culture of Social and Ecological Peace."
p>This contextual sustainability framework can be considered part of the vision of the integrated social and ecological values of the Earth Charter. This Charter as the same importance and significance as the Magna Carta for 13th Century Britain, The Rights of Man and Citizen for 18th Century France and as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the 21st Century for the whole of humanity. In other words the present 2000 Benchmark draft of the Earth Charter can start functioning as humanity's values base, given that it was produced across the continents and disciplines in a wide variety of methods of participatory decision-making. Its next phase may be an evolution into soft law that can be accepted by most governments and the United Nations.
CASCADIA SUSTAINABLE AVIATION PLAN OF ACTION
Nineteenth century American transcendentalist and Unitarian minister Ralph Waldo Emerson made a very astute observation about principles and methods. These words are very important to us who want to pursue sustainable aviation policies, programs and projects based upon the principles of ecological sustainability, accountability and equity as proposed in the contextual sustainability framework. He writes:
"As to methods there may a billion and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man, who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble."
Ralph Waldo Emerson quoted in Edwards 2005: 11.
What are the major activities that the citizen sustainable aviation movement has to engage in to push for this contextually sustainable vision? What are these activities, particularly as they apply to challenge of having Sustainable Cascadia achieve sustainability in a generation?
The most important challenge of the citizen sustainable aviation movement in general and also in Cascadia is to develop a basic consensus on a vision of sustainable aviation. It is this difficult challenge of a unified vision on the national level that keeps many groups apart and dramatically reduces the impact of the US citizen sustainable aviation movement on both the US and international aviation industry and the US Congress. EARTHCHARTER
The second most important challenge for the US citizen sustainable aviation movement is to build a strong alternative to the present aviation and transportation system in the US by marshalling its forces for the IITS Initiative.
This Initiative entails a 15 year program to the tune of $300 billion that would integrate aviation into an efficient intermodal system. Since the Wright Brothers started to fly in 1907, aviation has remained a separate mode of transportation, with its own funding separate from the DOT surface transportation funding, a separate technical and planning department that is not part of the Mineta Transportation Institute, etc. etc. Though the DOT has an intermodal transportation office set up after the 1991 ISETEA legislation, it does not include integration of the air transportation mode.
For the last ten years I have been working on using the landmark of the jet age at JFK, i.e. the Saarinen building for an International Visitors Center on Intermodalism. The project's steering committee represents the Who Is Who in Intermodalism in the USA. The same members will be invited together with new ones such as representatives of Reconnecting America to be part of this far larger project. It is also the intention to draw on the Intermodalism experts of the Netherlands and Scandinavia and other parts of the world and, possibly, inviting them to be part of an International IITS Advisory Committee.
It is high time that aviation is to be integrated into the US transportation system. There are many reasons for us in the citizen sustainable aviation movement to push for the IITS Initiative.
First, the Initiative would reduce the emissions of the aviation industry because of a reduction in operations. Less planes means less emissions. This ecological reason in these troubled times of the climate crisis is primary. A close second would be the economic reason. An integrated intermodal transportation system in the US would be a boon to the economic system as a whole, because it would produce its goods and services on a higher energy efficiency level and thus saving money and increasing competition globally. Also the 15 year program would create many excellent jobs, starting with the feasibility studies to be carried out by regional University Transportation Centers, the building and upgrading of tracks, the strengthening of an efficient coach network for passenger travel, support of rail freight companies so that their tracks can be more efficiently used for freight and secondarily for passenger travel.
Besides these ecological and economic benefits security, safety is other considerations. What it takes is a vision of serious sustainability thinking and practice and the political will to invest the needed $300 billion to be disbursed over five 3-year periods.
What are the benefits and roles of the various parts of the aviation industry in this Initiative? They will, like the other modes of transportation, draw on the $300 billion to start planning and implementing the integration. Thus, for instance, they will be required to evaluate their air services in terms of their linkages with the various modes of transportation in the cities and towns of destination. They may consider investing in an efficient train network, not necessarily high speed trains, because the latter seem not to be as energy efficient as an efficient regular train. By supporting this Initiative, the aviation industry will revamp itself and shedding its old skin on its path to sustainability.
The third most important challenge for the US citizen sustainable aviation movement is to have the industry pay for all its social and ecological costs. It is demand #9 in your handout. Ecological economists generally do not include the social costs of the industry, but focus on incorporating the environmental costs. This is a very important start on the way to full sustainability in the industry.
The fourth most important challenge of the citizen sustainable aviation movement is demand #3: have the US Congress expressly include both the civil and military aviation in any climate crisis legislation. Among the civil aviation measures the difference between passenger and cargo travel has to be spelled out.
In pursuing these four major challenges it is highly advisable for the citizen sustainable aviation movement to keep British journalist George Monbiot's argument about aviation in the forefront.
Monbiot argues that aviation industry, government and civil society have to acknowledge the basic incompatibility of an expansionistic industry with the need to reduce its GHG emissions. Having demonstrated that his target of 90% reduction by 2030 is possible by showing actual numbers and measures in housing, shopping, the cement industry, he (Monbiot) comes to the conclusion that there is no techno-fix for a 90% reduction of GHGs by the aviation industry by 2030. He systematically reviews the possible rate of engine improvement, the use of alternative fuels--hydrogen fuelled airplanes would have 10 times the impact on climate that kerosene-fuelled planes do --improvements in airframe manufacture, etc. He finally comes to the colossal conclusion that: "The growth in aviation and the need to address climate change cannot be reconciled. Given that the likely possible efficiencies are small and tend to counteract another or to be unacceptable for other reasons, a 90 per cent cut in emissions requires not only that growth stops, but that most of the planes which are flying today are grounded. I recognize that this will be not a popular message. But it is hard to see how a different conclusion could be extracted from the available evidence."(p. 182)
Some observers believe that the aviation industry will the main industry that will have to buy carbon credits from other industries, thus raising its prices which would reduce flying.
Once the US citizen sustainable aviation movement has engaged in forcing a unified vision, in fully developing the IITS Initiative with the assistance of their Congressional representatives, in forcing the industry to internalize its social and ecological costs and, finally, in having Congress spell out in detail the requirements for the industry in its climate crisis legislation, demand #1 of reining back the expansionistic syndrome will take care of itself.
Let's now look in greater detail what these challenges mean for the citizen sustainable aviation movement in the Sustainable Cascadia Bioregion. We will look at these challenges by pointing to various possible policies, programs and projects, divided into a half dozen dimensions or levels of the local aviation industry.
We will start with the two most important levels of ethics and politics. This prioritizing of the ethical and political dimensions may seem somewhat arbitrary or farfetched, because these dimensions, particularly the moral one, are generally not prioritized by the aviation industry and the government. By keeping the discussions on the technical, economic or even environmental levels, they escape the more fundamental challenge of having to change their mindsets, perspectives, values and have them become part of a political process that they want to dominate. After discussions of the challenges in those two dimensions, we will look at the second set of the ecological and economic dimensions, given their importance and their interconnectedness. Following these four dimensions, the legal, educational, media, and, yes, the military dimensions will be briefly discussed.
PLAN OF ACTION ON THE MORAL LEVEL
It is the right and responsibility of the citizen sustainable aviation movement to pressure the aviation industry and its associated government agencies to pursue sustainable aviation of the contextual type of sustainability.
Let me list of series of actions that more illustrative than exhaustive.
- Insisting on an equal sharing of burdens and benefits according the parameters of distributional justice, e.g. in routings of planes, the soundproofing of residences near airports
- Insisting on procedural justice by having a fair participatory decision-making process in the spirit of "Acting Together for a Just World"--the theme of the Civicus World Assembly in Glasgow, medio June 2008
- Pursue accountability in the aviation governance by questioning the use of institutional arrangement such as public authority which are set up to avoid red tape, but in fact escape democratic control
- Try to get legislation passed for an Aviation Ombudsman, as long as the justified demands of the citizen sustainable aviation movement are not heard and important aviation issues fall through the cracks
- Teasing out in present industry policies, programs and projects the ethical implications of both distributional and procedural justice for all the stakeholders is not an easy task. An example how this is done in respect to the US Government's response to the global climate crisis is available in Donald Brown's American Heat. His Rock Ethics Institute at Pen State has identified 8 areas in the US response that have are ethically unacceptable or at least challenged.
- In the contested field of statistics on the industry's contribution to the climate crisis the citizen sustainable aviation movement has to questions methodologies that do not include the values of the contextual sustainability framework explained earlier.
- Given the substantial contribution of the civil and military aviation industry to the GHG emissions and their contribution to the climate crisis the US aviation industry is to be guided by the principles that the US Government have agreed to, but does not comply with such as article 3 of UN Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) and principles 2 and 6 of the Rio Earth Summit . Among these principles is the polluter pays principle. Thus, the citizen sustainable aviation movement can put the aviation industry on the defensive by arguing that they are not acting according to international law. Perhaps the citizen sustainable aviation movement in the Sustainable Cascadia Bioregion or the national organization, Citizens Aviation Watch, USA, Inc., should consider suing the US DOT and the FAA on this moral matter.
- Determining base line data on aviation and transportation based upon an explicit Earth Charter values-driven planning and assessment framework and include these data in a Cascadia version of the TEN SUSTAINABLE AVIATION DEMANDS
- Work with the Sightline organization and apply its sustainability values within the larger contextual sustainability framework and the vision of the Earth Charter
- other
PLAN OF ACTION ON THE POLITICAL LEVEL
- Rejuvenate the Pacific Northwest Rail Corridor program, taking clues from the Mineta Transportation Center's study of high speed rail and convince British Columbia the benefits of joining the effort. Part of this plan would be seeking the collaboration of the three authors who wrote "Cascadia: Shared Visions and Strategic Alliances in a Cross-Border Region " and of Mark Roseland of SFU who is a specialist in sustainable communities development
- Attack expansionism of the NAR program that will come to the Pacific Northwest in due time. Start promoting the fifth alternative that SAFE, Inc has been promoting in the metro NY region: doing more with less alternative
- Push aviation to the political level and make it part of the 2008 elections. Write to the candidates and expand their horizons on the climate crisis by having the aviation industry included in their platforms.
- Create many opportunities for networking on the bioregional level among citizens in order to build a sustainable aviation political force
- Negotiate, or at least, enter into conversation with the aviation industry--there are attempts of sustainability thinking, though beware of the sustainable aviation discourse by governments and industry. Cf. Sustainable Development Forum in the UK
- Show businesses such as airlines and airports that it will be in their benefit to being part of sustainable communities development planning.
- Have university professors teach a course on sustainable aviation or have local colleges offer online course on sustainable aviation.
- Set up working groups and bring in government officials and business representatives using the Local Agenda 21 approach, perfected by www.ICLEI.org in its approach of sustainable communities development.
- Push local governments in the Sustainable Cascadia Bioregion to start planning for the energy and climate uncertainties in ways suggested by the Post Carbon Institute's Guidebook written by Daniel Lerch
- other.
PLAN OF ACTION ON THE ECOLOGICAL LEVEL
- Make the connections with the concern about the climate crisis and show its urgency for the aviation industry to do its part using the excellently illustrated and incisively written book by Paul Brown, entitled Global Warning. Last Chance for Change.
- Keep the emissions of the aviation industry before the public and politicians. It may be around 15% now and will be that amount certainly in 2008. While carbon emissions in some industries have come down a little, they have been rising in the aviation industry on account of its unwarranted and unethical growth. It is surely a significant contributant in the rising carbon levels. States Christopher Field, director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology in California: "Carbon dioxide is rising at a much faster rate than before. In the 1990s, CO2 emissions increased by about 1.3% per year. Since 2000, the growth rate has been 3.3% per year." He and his colleagues researchers calculate that global carbon-dioxide emissions were 35% higher in 2006 than in 1990."
- Demand that the local and state governments engage in air pollution monitoring, preferably taking the bubble around the airport as their focus
- Continue to improve the Sea-Tac noise abatement program that received honorary mention in the NRDC publication, Flying Off Course. Perhaps a comprehensive noise soundproofing program can be pursued and trying to get the same results as the people in the Minneapolis case. In the Metro NY are we are attempting to have City Council funding to do our own independent measurement to force the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to engage in a Part 150 program.
- Question the FAA's a noise monitoring methodology that underestimates aircraft noise, particularly by not measuring low frequency noise that does the most damage to life and buildings
- Push the FAA to devise a new methodology of measuring noise and pollution of engines in use rather than only of new engines
- Network with organizations such as the British Public Policy Research which published "The Sky's the Limit: policies for sustainable aviation"; with the Center for Clean Air Policy where Jack Smidt published "Aircraft NOx: Analysis of New Certification Standard and Options for Introducing an Airport Bubble." Note that this organization operates on the principles of Dialogue, Insight, Solutions
