Saturday, February 03, 2007 Batuhan: Save the planet By Allan S. B. Batuhan Foreign Exchange
IN the last few days and weeks, all the talk has been about global warming, and the damage we are doing to our own planet due to our excessive consumption of carbon fossil fuels.
From Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” to the UK’s Conservative leader David Cameron’s “cycle to parliament” workdays, everyone of consequence seems to be jumping on the climate change bandwagon.
This is good news indeed for the environment. For if 2006 is to be any indication, the world is indeed getting noticeably warmer. No more Dicken-sian winters for Londoners, unfortunately.
Apart from the odd snowstorm which closed roads in the South of England for a few days last month, not a flake of snow was to be sighted anywhere in the United Kingdom. And scientific predictions already indicate the high likelihood of 2007 being even more of a scorcher than the preceding year was.
Businesses are responding to the challenge in various ways – some more ambitious than others. Marks and Spencer’s has announced that within five years the company will become carbon neutral. Not to be outdone, TESCO, now the world’s second largest retailer behind Wal-mart, likewise pledged to cut its own carbon emissions by 50 percent within the same time frame.
Perhaps, no other business sector, however, has come under intense criticism as much as the airline industry for its role in increasing atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide. Ireland-based Ryanair, the world’s largest low-cost airline, has been branded as the “irresponsible face of capitalism” by the UK’s environment minister, for its role in increasing the volume of travel within Europe. Other major airlines have similarly come under fire.
As a result, Chancellor Gordon Brown has announced this week his plan to increase airline travel tax, making it that much more expensive for tourists to travel for their holidays. According to the future prime minister, this tax will be used to fund “environmentally-friendly” projects designed to halt climate change.
Although well intentioned, it seems that in our rush to protect the environment, we may be setting in motion consequences that may be more detrimental to the planet than climate change itself.
Air travel has today become a necessity, not only for businesses but for consumers as well. No matter how much advanced communications technology we have, I can definitely say that there is no substitute for face-to-face management in certain situations.
Video-conferencing can only be taken so far, but understanding the nuances of sensitive commercial negotiations is very difficult with remote contact alone.
Another victim of the curtailment of air travel will be the tourism industry that, for many developing countries, is a major segment of their economy. The Philippines will surely be one of the main losers should a significant reduction in European air travel take place.
We cannot allow our zeal to protect the earth overlook the negative consequences that such goodwill will bring. The commercial benefits of responsible tourism have already achieved significant achievements — from protecting endangered wildlife in Africa, to saving the rainforests of South America, and promoting the indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia.
Saving the planet clearly requires much more thought than the knee jerk reactions and clever gimmicks that make for good headlines, but ultimately don’t do much else.
