Virgin Makes biofuel flight

This is my response to Virgin makes biofuel flight, taken from The Toronto Star on February 24^th, 2008. The article talks about a recent flight made by a Virgin Atlantic 747 Jumbo Jet from London, England to the Netherlands. This particular aircraft was outfitted to run on a specific kind of biofuel, and thus has captured the attention of environmental and aviation enthusiasts alike. One of the interesting controversies surrounding this issue in general is the lack of information we have about biofuels in practise. Some scientists argue that there are obvious environmental advantages with this and other forms of a new breed of ‘green’ fuels. However, others believe that biofuels, although known for their reduced amount of carbon dioxide waste, actually release increased levels of other greenhouse gases during their breakdown process. Thus we seem to lack a general consensus regarding whether these new eco-friendly fuel alternatives are really eco-friendly at all.

In the bigger picture I think it’s interesting to look at the evolution of new technologies that are aimed at reducing the environmental destruction that occurs everyday as a result of our fuel consumption. Vehicles that utilize hybrid, biofuel and solar cell power generation are becoming increasingly more available in today’s market, but often at an increased cost. The effect of this problem is that it seems as though we are now pitted between our desire to save environmental resources and our desire to conserve our own personal economic resources. How many of you would consider purchasing a hybrid vehicle if it were much more expensive, so much so that it might takes years of operating the vehicle in order to see savings equal to that of the additional cost of buying the vehicle initially, if at all?Or how many of you would pay more for an airline ticket simply because the aircraft you travel on is powered by a more environmentally efficient and also more costly fuel source? The extent to which we each side on issues like these largely depends on the extent to which we personally feel responsible for preserving our environment, and thus protecting our own spaces. The revelation that biofuels may only offer limited, if any, environmental benefits, further brings into question our motivations for utilizing such technology. Is biofuel part of a new large scale trend that promotes environmental awareness or simply representative of a new platform upon which companies can now begin to market their products in order to fuel their own economic interests?