By Robert S. Kirsner Los Angeles
Melody Hanatani’s article “Flying with a little less baggage,” page 3, July 30, would be workable only if there also were Oxygen Offsets and Noise Offsets for those living near the Santa Monica Airport. However, it is still not clear to me how the people living near the airport would be able to convert those offsets into the needed oxygen and the needed relief from noise. Strange as it may seem, there might still be things which money cannot buy, such as quality of life for the neighbors of the airport.
In any case, if the Carbon Offset program were to be approved, the only honest thing to do would be to rename the Santa Monica Airport as the SANTA MONI- CA BEIJING AIRPORT, in view of the noise and air pollution which would still be there (along with the Offsets). On the plus side, instead of having to read about all the pollution in China and around Beijing before the Olympic Games, and which will undoubtedly return after the games are over and factories open again and more cars are permitted to drive, we could actually experience the pollution even in Los Angeles. We could just drive to the SM-B airport rather than visiting Beijing itself, thereby saving the one thing that the originators of the Carbon Offset plan understand — money.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 1, 2008. Read the original PDF.