Letter to Irish Times 17 Jan 07

FINE GAEL'S AIRPORT PROPOSAL

Madam, - A misguided Michael Smith (January 12th) dismisses Fine Gael's
proposal for a second Dublin airport on the basis of "the contribution of airline travel to global warming". A simple application of logic would tell Mr Smith that the emission of greenhouse gases is directly proportional to the number of aircraft taking off, rather than the number of airports from which they can do so.

More importantly, the fact that aircraft burn a large proportion of their fuel on take-off means that, by allowing transatlantic flights to make stops at Shannon, we effectively double their contribution to global warming. - Yours, etc,

MICHAEL KELLY,
Victoria Street,
Portobello,
Dublin 8.