[justme]

There is evidence to suggest that the emissions in the high atmosphere are more damaging that those at the surface.

I know you would ask so I will as well... let's see it.

It is also without doubt significantly less polluting to take the train for short haul journey's.

I don't deny that for a second. Matter of fact I said recently, "I think there is definite benefit to using light rail systems for mass transit in urban areas instead of everyone driving their huge SUV with only 1 person in it. That's a no-brainer."

The other factor is that the "infrastructure" argument could work for largely undeveloped infrastructure countries such as China... it certainly doesn't work for Europe or parts of the NorthEast US, where the infrastructure carbon has already been spent.

Parts, of the top right teeny tiny corner of the US, have infrastructure in place. The rest of the US is seriously lacking and wouldn't be far behind China in their lack of rail.

The New Scientist article also doesn't address the fact that air travel doesn't actually take you to where you want to go. Trains tend to run city centre to city centre, so the journey is virtually complete. Airports tend to take you to some place well outside the city.. and then require further infrastructure (and thus carbon) to actually take you to where you were going.

How do you know where I'm going? Who says I want to go to the city center? I get what you're saying, but if I'm not going to the city center, the journey is indeed NOT virtually complete. The transit you would be using after you fly is in a different category. It doesn't count for the airline. Also, I can think of plenty of airports that are pretty close to the middle of the city. ATL, NYC, BOS, LAX, DCA, HOU, LAS, etc, etc.

The truth is, as with all of these things, it is not either/or. We need to reduce gas guzzling car usage, and in particular, to price gas realistically based on the true environmental cost. We then need alternative fuels including solar, wind, nuclear, tidal etc.. and we need to increase the costs of travel to reflect the damage it does.

Agreed, Agreed, Agreed, Agreed, and Agreed.