Despite,
air travel becoming affordable due to cheap price of tickets it is also drawing
a lot of flak on account of being most polluting medium of transportation. This
is prompted some to suggest that air tariffs should be raised in order to bring
down the pollution.
Affordable
airlines tarrifs have truly changed the face of the world. The benefits are too obvious: low cost of travelling
by air has helped foster a sense of equality among the masses – by virtue of people
from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds being able to use airlines to travel to
various far-off destinations. Today, it is easy to find people frequenting airports
to travel for expanding their businesses and seeking employment in really
distant and formerly unapproachable locations.
Similarly,
reduced air tariffs have stimulated an unprecedented growth in tourism and
travel industry, and created opportunities for a harmonious environment. Now,
people from various walks of life can plan journeys to destinations, for leisure
and vacations, of their choice, regardless of their incomes. This travelling across
to various distant destinations has created opportunities for intermingling
with natives of those locations, and thus develop a sense of brotherhood.
However,
the environmentalists attribute most of the problems related to deteriorating
environment to an increase in the number of aircraft flying. A rise in number
of planes taking to skies has led to a spike in use fossil fuel, thereby
increasing gas emissions. Moreover, this has also led to increase in size of
airports, which is of course done by clearing green cover.
Henceforth,
although aircraft are a major source of pollution,
raising ticket prices would not help, and instead would prove counter productive.
The need is to find greener alternatives to fossil fuels since solution lies in
accelerating development rather stopping it.