It’s Not Easy Being Green
It’s the day after the Election and I’m feeling good. Yes, Obama was my candidate. But I’m feeling good about hope for the working stiffs and for aviation. Now, the jury’s out on whether Obama’s policies will or won’t help aviation generally. But my feeling is – why sit and moan about what could happen. Let’s all of us be part of making sure that aviation thrives. Take the environment – no, I haven’t turned into a tree hugger – but the green revolution is coming and why shouldn’t we be part of it? Aren’t airport ground personnel on the frontlines of airport operations? Don’t you have a first class view of what’s going on? Where’s the waste and how to we cut it?
So maybe you think global warming is some high fallutin’, ivory tower issue. And maybe it is. But the issue for us is how to we become part of the economic engine that going green will become? Or do we sit around and do nothing and let someone steamroll over us? It’s our chance to seize the opportunity or export it along with foreign repair stations, manufacturing, and all the other jobs that have fled this country and found thriving havens in other lands.
(Editor’s Note: Ground Support Worldwide magazine will be attending the AAAE & IATA Cooperation Series: Environmental Symposium - Green Synergies Across the Aviation Value Chain in Washington, D.C., November 12-14 and will report on it in the coming weeks.)
November 11th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
1.) I am disapointed that you have to bring politics in. I think you will be come to regret your vote.
2.) “Global warming” is not real. It is a theory not based on fact, used to scare people. We need to learn to teach conservation and recycleing without resorting to fear tactics. Because after awhile you become the little boy who cried WOLF.
In closeing I believe very much in conserveing what we have, recycling what we can, and protecting the environment. I do not believe in “global warming”
Thank you
Tim
November 18th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
You’re a brave man, admitting on an aviation ground support blog that you voted democrat (I did too).
Thank you for posting about being green. I strongly, deeply, and passionately believe that aviation can operate in harmony with the environment. From a commercial aviation perspective, ground support can make a HUGE impact on the overall emissions and pollution from airports and aviation operations.
I was a “ramp rat” during and immediately after college, and I was appalled, even years ago, at parking a belt-loader against a passenger jet and leaving it running for hours while we waited for the bags to arrive after downloading the plane. Why waste that fuel and create that pollution?
Well, the answer at the time was that our equipment was so old and decrepit that we were afraid it wouldn’t start again if we shut it down for the wait time between flights.
So - what is stopping us from designing and using ground equipment that uses hybrid technology like Toyota and Honda and Ford use on passenger road vehicles? IMO, it’s a perfect solution to a problem that most people don’t even realize exists at airports. But it’s a pretty nifty way to reduce aviation’s impact at the locations where the industry pollutes most - the airports.
Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley
http://www.environmentastic.com/blog
BS Aviation Management 2000
MBA Entrepreneurship 2006