As aviation charges ahead to become one of the world's fastest growing industries, with passenger numbers and cargo volumes projected to double in the next 20 years, Plane Truth sounds a highly informed note of scepticism.
Rose Bridger provides a comprehensive account of aviation's impact, including how new airports are gobbling up farmland and wildlife habitats and inflicting noise and air pollution on communities. She reveals the extraordinary level of subsidy for the industry, from government expenditure on infrastructure to tax breaks, which helps to support the industry in the face of rising oil prices and the global economic downturn.
Plane Truth demolishes industry claims that fuel-efficient aircraft and alternative fuels can enable growth without increasing climate change and reveals the symbiotic relationship between aviation and the wider socio-economic problems facing humanity.

Acronyms viii

Glossary x

A Note on the Text xi

Acknowledgements xii

Introduction 1

1 The Future of Flight 7

The World's Busiest Airports 7

The Supersonic Dead End 10

Aviation and the Global Greenhouse 14

Frequent Flyers 16

Regulatory Avoidance 20

The Future Fleet 22

2 Feeding the Fuel Tanks 27

Alternative Fuels 27

Crop Failure 30

Bombs not Food 33

Green Crude 36

Cooking Oil and Cellulose 39

3 Local Environmental Impacts 44

Localised Air Pollution 44

Sweet Poison 48

On Flood Plains 52

Fuel Leaks 55

Fires Far Away 58

4 Threats to Wildlife and Farmland 62

The Winged Menace 62

Loss of Green Space 65

On Indian Farmland 70

5 Green Garnish 76

Green Power 76

Greenwash 80

Passenger Processing 84

6 Air Cargo 90

Multimodal Cargo 90

Flying Refrigerators 94

Another Ethiopia 98

7 Industrial Cargo 103

Airlinked Assembly Lines 103

The Cargo Giants 105

For the Oil Industry 108

Extreme Oil 112

Remote Resource Extraction 116

8 Arms, Aid and Accidents 119

Arms and Aid to Africa 119

Africa's Abysmal Air Safety Record 122

Crashes and Conflict in DR Congo 125

From Reconnaissance to Rendition 129

9 Concrete and Overcapacity 133

Stimulus and Subsidies 133

An Airport to Nowhere 136

The OMP Boondoggle 139

Overcapacity in Illinois 142

10 Counting the Costs 147

The Taxpayers' Burden 147

Flag Carrier Bailouts 152

Economic Doubts 156

Jobs for Robots 159

Destinations in Their Own Right 162

11 Real Estate and Revenue Streams 168

On Airport Land 168

Shops and Solar Panels 171

Cashing in on Green Space 173

Site Strnggles 176

Money on the Ground 180

Shale Gas Hotspots 183

12 How Aviation Keeps Growing 187

The Importance of Non-Aeronautical Revenue 187

The Oil Price 189

Forecasts and the Future 192

Appendix: NGOs working to address the environmental and economic impacts of aviation expansion 196

Notes 197

Index 261

Rose Bridger works on environmental issues in the UK in the areas of policy, practical projects and community development. She has been a consultant for the local food sector and campaigned against air freight expansion for a number of years. She is the author of Plane Truth (Pluto, 2013).

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