Airlines: Unethical?
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If you invest in socially-responsible mutual funds, you may not be investing (however indirectly) in airlines much longer. And it has nothing to do with labor practices, if that’s where your mind is drifting.
Fund manager Standard Life is dropping airlines from its “ethical” portfolios:
Airlines have been labelled unethical by one of Britain’s biggest investment firms, which plans them to blacklist them alongside arms dealers, pornographers and animal-testing laboratories.
Concern over the millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide produced by commercial aircraft has prompted the Edinburgh-based Standard Life to cease investing in carriers such as British Airways, Ryanair and EasyJet on behalf of tens of thousands of customers of its ethical funds.
Sure, the parallel with arms dealers and pornographers is intentionally inflammatory, and makes great headlines. And if the funds have an environmental focus, then the exclusion makes sense. Air travel isn’t without its carbon impact (though short-hop airlines like Ryanair presumably have a greater negative impact than long-haul airlines like British Airways…)
And let’s not forget that airlines have been pretty lousy long-term investments. But that’s not ethics, that’s business.
But above all, this highlights how different the discourse of travel is in Europe and America, despite perpetually increasing environmental awareness among Americans. Sure, airlines spew plenty of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but this is barely an issue in the US.
Ethical investment? Or a distasteful stain on any self-respecting person’s portfolio? Hit the comments.
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February 7th, 2008 at 12:54 am |
It may not be a big issue in the U.S. public’s mind right now, but it will be soon, especially if significant climate laws are enacted in the next few years under a new president. Airlines are now being included in the European emissions trading scheme; it’s only a matter of time here.
February 7th, 2008 at 2:24 am |
What a bunch of ecofascist assholes. It’s idiots like this who make sane environmentalists look bad. Their ilk would rather we never travel, and live overall miserable lives than emit an ounce of pollution.
February 7th, 2008 at 4:34 am |
agreed. This is ridiculous. I recently read (I believe it was on the BBC) that all air traffic accounts for only 3% of global emissions while all maritime traffic accounts for 20%! Where are the protests to reduce sea traffic? Are mutual fund managers moving away from shipping companies? I seriously doubt it.
What strikes me as odd is that many protesters in Europe seem convinced that airlines are a huge factor, yet hybrid vehicles don’t have any comparable market share to those in the US. Cars pollute more than airliners yet its much easier to pick on jets because their big and (somewhat) loud.
If people only exercised a bit of common sense before jumping on the feel-good band wagon, we might actually see quantitative results…
February 7th, 2008 at 9:33 am |
Ah, the econazis… First they came for the lightbulbs, then for the airlines, next are the cows who emit too much CO2. Are humans next?
I priced a trip on BA to some city in SE Europe. BA offers to change airports in London (cost not included). Rather than offer something convenient they want to push you “carbon offset” donations! Why should I let them spend even more of my money? (They’ll donate it to charities this time…)
February 18th, 2008 at 1:55 am |
The average Ecofascist does not want to actually make your life better. Au contraire, they want to make it as miserable as possible. We’ve got quite a few of them in Seattle, and they can be spotted by their dreadlocks, B.O., and the fact that they ride bicycles in the rain. They’d rather make it nigh impossible to afford to drive, forcing people to take the bus, than simply make bus travel palatable.