Author: Benno Baksteen
Benno Baksteen
The author Benno Baksteen, has forty years operational aviation experience and has spent his whole working life in what became known as a safety culture. He started his flight training in 1966 at the Government Flight Academy in Eelde and after his military service with the Royal Dutch Naval Air Force he joined KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in 1970 as First Officer on the DC-9. He got his first Captaincy in 1982 and in 2006 he retired as Captain on the Boeing 777 after being a B747 Captain from 1988 until 2003.
The defamatory name, the Big Bad Wolf, arrived in the world of climate change, but that picture is based on framing and not on facts. Unfortunately, this picture does seem to influence policymakers. So, let’s dismantle the framing, step by step. The effects of doing so may be limited, but it will hopefully lead to the return of justifiable pride in one of human society’s greatest achievements: the conquest of the air. To start with, let us list three things that are not up for discussion. Number one; climate change is real. Secondly, the contribution that aviation makes to climate…