SUNDAY FUNNIES

The global airline system is also in the climate ideologists’ (and the U.N.’s) crosshairs, as it is seen as a major culprit of climate change.  Like most arguments made by the progressive left, symbolism is often more important than facts, and while aviation’s “carbon footprint” is relatively small (about 3% of total emissions), air travel is also a source of authoritarian political anxiety, as it represents human freedom in mobility and choice, along with its inherent ability to create social contact and the sharing of information and culture.  One of the first things that any political despot seeks to curtail in a closed society is contact with outside sources, influence of “foreign” behaviors, and the disruption to political authority by the free exchange of ideas…

Most of the public may not appreciate that the equivalent way to control human air travel and interaction is not through the airlines themselves, but by the airspace they fly through: the U.S. federal government directly controls all aviation airspace and flight authority in it because it staffs, operates, and completely regulates air traffic control (ATC).  It can simply shut down airspace access, in the same way it can shut down the internet (with the proverbial Obama “kill switch”).