Australia fights jet-flight guilt over global warming

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australia's tourism authorities Tuesday launched a campaign to fight claims that long-distance air travel is a major cause of global warming.

With long-distance flights virtually the only way of reaching "Down Under", guilt over climate change is seen as a threat to the country's 75 billion dollar (62.7 billion US) tourism industry.

Negative press campaigns in major markets such as Britain had exaggerated the contribution of air travel to the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, Tourism Minister Fran Bailey said.

"I've seen ads that appear in the UK papers bagging long-haul aviation as a very large polluter. It's simply not true.

"Aviation contributes two percent of (global carbon dioxide) emissions, where a lot of ads in the UK...