Airplanes, the Environment, and the Human Condition

Hans A. Baer is Principal Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Social Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

• Introduction 1. The Political Economy of Aircraft 2. Airports: Nodes or Loci of Economic Development and Sociality? 3. Cultural Tropes Associated with Aeromobility 4. The Impact of Airplanes on the Environment and Climate Change 5. Who is Being Transported by Airplanes 6. Efforts to Make Airplanes and Airports More Environmentally Sustainable 7. Alternatives to Flying: Individual and Collective Strategies 8. Airplanes, Sustainable Transportation, and the Future of Humanity

"Flying was a dream of humanity for millennia before turning into reality and, soon enough, an environmental nightmare. This book by Hans Baer is probably the closest we get to the full story of aviation, tracing its origins and cultural significance, using data ranging from ethnography to statistics, and providing a lucid, convincing analysis of environmental impacts and possible remedies. Obligatory reading for frequent flyers, highly recommended to everybody else." - Thomas Hylland Eriksen, University of Oslo