But [flight technologies] have also (along with shipping technologies) been the primary cause of ecological devastation.
This might be a bit of a digression, but I’m going to have to ask for a cite on that. My understanding is that power generation and industry are responsible for the majority of carbon emissions; Wikipedia describes transport fuels (road, rail, air and sea inclusive) as representing about 20% of carbon output and 15% of total greenhouse emissions.
Now, you said “ecological devastation”, not “carbon”, and air and sea transport’s more general ecological footprint is of course harder to measure; but given their fuel-intensive nature I’d expect carbon emissions to represent most of it. There’s also noise pollution, non-greenhouse emissions, bird and propeller strikes, pollution associated with manufacture and dismantling, and the odd oil spill, but although those photos of Chittagong shipbreakers are certainly striking I’d be surprised if all of that put together approached the ecological impact of transport’s CO2 output, never mind representing an additional overhead large enough to dominate humanity’s ecological effects.
Sorry I was again assuming a common basis of knowledge. Carbon emissions would be environmental damage (damaging to the biosphere as a whole). Ecological damages more commonly refers to damages to ecosystems (smaller communities within the biosphere). When people talk about ecological damages they are primarily talking about invasive species. Invasive species are plants, animal, bacteria, and fungi that have been artificially transported from one ecosystem to another and have no natural predator within it. Huge portions of American forest are being eradicated as we speak by Asian beetles, plants, etc.
The primary cause of invasive species is trans-Atlantic/ trans-pacific shipping and flights. We try to regulate what gets on and off ships and boats, but it is really really hard. If you ever take a class in ecology this fact will probably be beaten into you. I work with an ecologist so I hear all the time about the devastation of invasive species and the growing frailty of the worlds ecosystems.
This might be a bit of a digression, but I’m going to have to ask for a cite on that. My understanding is that power generation and industry are responsible for the majority of carbon emissions; Wikipedia describes transport fuels (road, rail, air and sea inclusive) as representing about 20% of carbon output and 15% of total greenhouse emissions.
Now, you said “ecological devastation”, not “carbon”, and air and sea transport’s more general ecological footprint is of course harder to measure; but given their fuel-intensive nature I’d expect carbon emissions to represent most of it. There’s also noise pollution, non-greenhouse emissions, bird and propeller strikes, pollution associated with manufacture and dismantling, and the odd oil spill, but although those photos of Chittagong shipbreakers are certainly striking I’d be surprised if all of that put together approached the ecological impact of transport’s CO2 output, never mind representing an additional overhead large enough to dominate humanity’s ecological effects.
Sorry I was again assuming a common basis of knowledge. Carbon emissions would be environmental damage (damaging to the biosphere as a whole). Ecological damages more commonly refers to damages to ecosystems (smaller communities within the biosphere). When people talk about ecological damages they are primarily talking about invasive species. Invasive species are plants, animal, bacteria, and fungi that have been artificially transported from one ecosystem to another and have no natural predator within it. Huge portions of American forest are being eradicated as we speak by Asian beetles, plants, etc.
The primary cause of invasive species is trans-Atlantic/ trans-pacific shipping and flights. We try to regulate what gets on and off ships and boats, but it is really really hard. If you ever take a class in ecology this fact will probably be beaten into you. I work with an ecologist so I hear all the time about the devastation of invasive species and the growing frailty of the worlds ecosystems.
Thank you; that makes sense.