Inflated altitude

After the Western States, I have been familiarizing myself with the “Run Rabbit Run” 100 mile endurance run on Youtube. On track to complete my second 100+ km week in a row, I feel very much like an exhausted rabbit these days so it is easy for me to relate even if the trails around Nydala are nothing like the ones near Steamboat Springs, Colorado. In fact, my new Suunto watch has proven what I have long been suspecting, namely that the Umeå altitude measures on Strava are seriously inflated and that I have been doing much less climbing than my stats have previously suggested.

As for the ongoing and equally inflated “ethics of flying” debate, the irony was not lost when one of the participants accused KLM’s new “Fly Responsibly” campaign for hypocrisy as she saw what was clearly a personalized ad for cheap first class tickets next to the news article. While this may all be verging on the absurd, it of course also begs the question what a better way forward would look like?

In my view, instead of further unproductive aviation taxes, I would like to see a simple tonne-for-tonne scheme that would make it compulsory for airlines to offset their emissions through Direct Air Capture (a technology that is likely to be crucial for addressing non-energy emissions and eventually restoring atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to pre-industrial levels). Even if aviation worldwide is only responsible for 2-3% of all carbon emissions, it is primarily used by the most affluent people on the planet who should be able to bear the high initial costs of a DAC scheme and thus help drive down its costs through commercialization. In that way, we can continue to bring the world together while doing something that will actually matter in the fight against climate change.