Air travel and climate change

Even if Linda and I could afford to travel to far-flung destinations to see a fistful of new, exotic birds (as is a popular thing to do among many of the better-known listers) we definitely wouldn't do so. I'm not the greatest believer in 100% anthropogenic climate change - I'm certain there are other natural effects involved - but I am absolutely sure that jet aircraft are a major factor.

This morning, when I sat down in the office and looked northward the sky was completely clear and blue, with no cloud or haze. Then, at 5.00am, it was like turning on a tap: over forty aircraft passed overhead in twenty minutes or so: by 5.30 the eastern sky was a mass of contrails that spread and coalesced into hazy cloud. Just in case you hadn't come across this fact before:

Each passenger's 'share' of the carbon dioxide emissions on a transatlantic flight is the same as that produced by a family car in a year!

If you read the 'tweets' of the UK birding fraternity, you'll see that many of them post about veganism, recycling, plastic pollution, alternative energy, cycling etc etc. Then you notice that their next posting is from Papua NG, Costa Rica or Australia. Just saying...