B2 · Upper Intermediate
13 min
climateaviationenergy transitiongeopolitics
The Flight and the Planet: Aviation, Climate, and the Return to the Sky
El Vuelo y el Planeta: Aviación, Clima y el Regreso al Aire
Tehran's international airport has resumed commercial flights for the first time in two months, after the war forced Iran's airspace to close. Fletcher and Octavio use this moment to dig into a deeper question: what does aviation tell us about our relationship with climate, fossil fuels, and the future of the planet?
El aeropuerto internacional de Teherán ha reanudado los vuelos comerciales por primera vez en dos meses, después de que la guerra cerrara el espacio aéreo iraní. Fletcher y Octavio usan este momento para explorar una pregunta más profunda: ¿qué nos dice la aviación sobre nuestra relación con el clima, el combustible y el futuro?
7 essential B2-level terms from this episode, with translations and example sentences in Spanish.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| las estelas de condensación | contrails (condensation trails left by aircraft) | Las estelas de condensación de los aviones contribuyen al calentamiento global más allá de las emisiones directas de CO₂. |
| la densidad energética | energy density | Las baterías actuales no tienen la densidad energética suficiente para alimentar un avión de larga distancia. |
| descarbonizar | to decarbonize | Descarbonizar el sector de la aviación es uno de los mayores desafíos de la transición energética. |
| la huella de carbono | carbon footprint | Volar una vez al año tiene una huella de carbono mucho mayor que cualquier otro aspecto de la vida cotidiana. |
| la justicia climática | climate justice | La justicia climática exige que los países más ricos asuman mayor responsabilidad por sus emisiones históricas. |
| con mucha eficacia | with great effectiveness; very effectively (formal register) | El sector energético defiende sus intereses con mucha eficacia ante los organismos reguladores. |
| a escala | at scale | Producir combustible de aviación sostenible a escala sigue siendo un reto técnico y económico enorme. |
There's a detail buried in this week's news that I keep coming back to.
Tehran's airport reopened.
International flights, for the first time since the Iran war started two months ago.
And my first reaction was relief, honestly.
But then I thought about it longer, and I ended up in a very different place.
Bueno, yo entiendo esa reacción.
Well, I understand that reaction.
Cuando un aeropuerto cierra por una guerra, su reapertura parece una señal de normalidad.
When an airport closes because of a war, its reopening feels like a sign of normality.
Pero la aviación nunca ha sido exactamente normal, si hablamos del clima.
But aviation has never been exactly normal, if we're talking about the climate.
Right.
And that tension is what I want to dig into.
Because on one hand, the closure of Iranian airspace was a catastrophe for trade, for families, for people trying to get somewhere.
On the other hand, two months of grounded planes is a significant chunk of emissions that just...
didn't happen.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y eso nos lleva a una pregunta incómoda: ¿por qué necesitamos una guerra para reducir las emisiones de la aviación, cuando no somos capaces de hacerlo en tiempos de paz?
And that leads us to an uncomfortable question: why do we need a war to reduce aviation emissions, when we can't manage to do it in peacetime?
I covered something similar after COVID.
In 2020, global air traffic collapsed by about sixty percent.
And there was this brief, strange moment where researchers were measuring actual improvements in air quality over cities, over flight corridors.
It was real data, not modeling.
Sí, fue un experimento involuntario a escala global.
Yes, it was an involuntary experiment on a global scale.
Los científicos nunca habrían podido diseñar algo así.
Scientists could never have designed something like that.
Y lo que encontraron fue que la contaminación atmosférica cayó de manera dramática en cuestión de semanas.
And what they found was that air pollution dropped dramatically within weeks.
Pero también confirmó lo difícil que es descarbonizar el sector.
But it also confirmed how difficult it is to decarbonize the sector.
Because the planes came back.
The moment restrictions lifted, demand came roaring back.
There was even a term for it, right?
Revenge travel.
El turismo de revancha, sí.
Revenge tourism, yes.
La gente reservó vuelos como si el mundo fuera a acabarse de nuevo al día siguiente.
People booked flights as if the world were going to end again the next day.
Y lo entiendo, es humano.
And I understand it, it's human.
Pero desde el punto de vista climático, fue una señal muy clara: la demanda de vuelos no va a desaparecer sola.
But from a climate perspective, it was a very clear signal: demand for flights is not going to disappear on its own.
Let's put some numbers on this, because I think people genuinely underestimate aviation's footprint.
What are we actually talking about?
Los aviones producen alrededor del dos y medio por ciento del CO₂ global.
Planes produce around two and a half percent of global CO₂.
Parece poco, ¿verdad?
Sounds small, right?
Pero ese número no cuenta toda la historia.
But that number doesn't tell the whole story.
Cuando incluyes los efectos de las estelas de condensación y los óxidos de nitrógeno en la atmósfera superior, el impacto total sobre el calentamiento puede ser dos o tres veces mayor.
When you include the effects of contrails and nitrogen oxides in the upper atmosphere, the total warming impact can be two or three times higher.
So we might be looking at something closer to five or even ten percent of effective warming.
And that's before you account for the fact that aviation is one of the hardest sectors to electrify.
You can put a battery in a car.
You cannot currently put a battery in a 747.
Eso es exactamente el problema.
That is exactly the problem.
La energía que necesita un avión para despegar y mantenerse en el aire durante diez horas es enorme.
The energy a plane needs to take off and stay in the air for ten hours is enormous.
Las baterías actuales simplemente no tienen la densidad energética suficiente.
Current batteries simply don't have sufficient energy density.
No es una cuestión de voluntad política, es física.
It's not a question of political will, it's physics.
Which is why the conversation has shifted to sustainable aviation fuel.
SAF.
I've been reading about this.
The airlines love to talk about it.
And the numbers are, well, not exactly encouraging yet.
No, para nada.
No, not at all.
En 2024, el SAF representaba menos del uno por ciento del combustible total de la aviación mundial.
In 2024, SAF represented less than one percent of total global aviation fuel.
Uno por ciento.
One percent.
Y producirlo a escala requiere enormes cantidades de tierra, agua y energía.
And producing it at scale requires enormous amounts of land, water, and energy.
En algunos casos, la huella de carbono del proceso de producción casi anula los beneficios.
In some cases, the carbon footprint of the production process almost cancels out the benefits.
I interviewed an environmental engineer in Houston a few years back who called it "greenwashing with wings." He wasn't entirely wrong, though I think the technology is getting better.
Puede mejorar, sí.
It can improve, yes.
Pero hay una pregunta más fundamental que nadie quiere hacer en voz alta: ¿necesitamos volar tanto?
But there's a more fundamental question that nobody wants to ask out loud: do we need to fly so much?
El mundo desarrollado ha construido una economía, y también una cultura, que depende de que la gente cruce océanos con regularidad.
The developed world has built an economy, and also a culture, that depends on people crossing oceans regularly.
Eso tiene un coste que pagamos todos.
That has a cost that all of us pay.
That is the uncomfortable one.
And I'll be honest, I'm part of the problem.
Twenty-five years of reporting from six continents.
My carbon footprint from flights alone is...
I don't want to calculate it.
Fletcher, no hace falta que lo calcules.
Fletcher, you don't need to calculate it.
Yo te lo digo: mucho.
I'll tell you: a lot.
[chuckle] Pero no digo esto para atacarte.
But I'm not saying this to attack you.
Lo digo porque esa es la tensión real.
I'm saying it because that is the real tension.
La aviación conecta al mundo.
Aviation connects the world.
Conecta familias separadas por la migración, conecta periodistas con los lugares donde ocurren las cosas, conecta economías.
It connects families separated by migration, connects journalists with the places where things happen, connects economies.
And it doesn't connect them equally.
That's the thing that gets me.
About four percent of the world's population has ever been on a plane.
Four percent.
The people least responsible for aviation emissions are the ones most exposed to the effects of climate change.
Eso es absolutamente cierto y es una de las injusticias más profundas de la crisis climática.
That is absolutely true and it is one of the deepest injustices of the climate crisis.
Los que más contaminan son los que tienen más recursos para protegerse.
Those who pollute most are those with the most resources to protect themselves.
Los que menos contaminan son los que pierden sus costas, sus cosechas, sus hogares.
Those who pollute least are the ones losing their coasts, their harvests, their homes.
Let's bring it back to Teherán, because I think it opens up something specific about the Middle East and climate that often gets lost in the conflict coverage.
Sí, porque Irán es un caso muy particular.
Yes, because Iran is a very particular case.
Es un país con unas reservas de petróleo y gas enormes, una economía que depende en buena medida de los hidrocarburos, y al mismo tiempo una población joven que sufre una contaminación del aire brutal en ciudades como Teherán.
It's a country with enormous oil and gas reserves, an economy that depends significantly on hydrocarbons, and at the same time a young population that suffers brutal air pollution in cities like Tehran.
The air quality in Tehran is genuinely one of the worst in the world.
I was there in 2009, briefly, and the smog was physical.
You could taste it.
Lo que describes es común en muchas ciudades del sur global que dependen del petróleo barato y de flotas de coches viejos.
What you describe is common in many cities in the global south that depend on cheap oil and old car fleets.
La ironía es enorme: el país produce el recurso que envenena su propio aire.
The irony is enormous: the country produces the resource that poisons its own air.
Y ahora, con la guerra, con el aeropuerto cerrado durante dos meses, esa contaminación local probablemente bajó un poco.
And now, with the war, with the airport closed for two months, that local pollution probably dropped a little.
No es una solución, obviamente.
It's not a solution, obviously.
Wars as involuntary environmental interventions.
There's a grim literature on this, actually.
The Korean demilitarized zone became one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in Asia because humans were excluded from it for seventy years.
Es fascinante y perturbador al mismo tiempo.
It is fascinating and disturbing at the same time.
Pero lo que me parece más relevante es la pregunta que surge de ahí: si somos capaces de ver que la actividad humana tiene un impacto tan claro y tan rápido cuando se reduce, ¿por qué no podemos traducir eso en política climática real?
But what I find most relevant is the question that arises from there: if we can see that human activity has such a clear and rapid impact when it is reduced, why can't we translate that into real climate policy?
Because the politics are brutal.
The European Union tried to include aviation in its emissions trading scheme.
Airlines lobbied furiously.
There were diplomatic incidents.
The US threatened trade retaliation.
It ended up being watered down significantly.
Exacto.
Exactly.
Y eso dice mucho.
And that says a lot.
La aviación tiene una influencia política desproporcionada porque conecta a las élites que toman las decisiones.
Aviation has disproportionate political influence because it connects the elites who make the decisions.
Los políticos vuelan.
Politicians fly.
Los ejecutivos vuelan.
Executives fly.
Los periodistas, con todo el respeto, también vuelan.
Journalists, with all due respect, also fly.
Es un sector que defiende sus intereses con mucha eficacia.
It is a sector that defends its interests very effectively.
Fair point.
Painful, but fair.
Hay una propuesta que lleva años circulando entre economistas del clima: un impuesto progresivo sobre los vuelos, donde el segundo vuelo del año que hagas pague más que el primero, y el tercero aún más.
There is a proposal that has been circulating among climate economists for years: a progressive tax on flights, where the second flight of the year you take pays more than the first, and the third even more.
La idea es que protege al viajero ocasional, que quizás solo vuela una vez para visitar a su familia, mientras que penaliza al gran emisor habitual.
The idea is that it protects the occasional traveler, who perhaps only flies once to visit family, while penalizing the habitual heavy emitter.
I've read about this.
Sweden experimented with something like it.
And France capped domestic flights on routes where a train journey under two and a half hours exists.
That struck me as genuinely clever, not just symbolic.
La medida francesa fue interesante, sí, aunque el impacto real fue pequeño porque las rutas afectadas representaban una fracción mínima del tráfico total.
The French measure was interesting, yes, although the real impact was small because the affected routes represented a minimal fraction of total traffic.
Pero como señal política fue importante.
But as a political signal it was important.
Dijo: hay alternativas, y cuando existen, vamos a usarlas.
It said: there are alternatives, and when they exist, we are going to use them.
Eso es más difícil de aplicar cuando hablamos de vuelos transatlánticos.
That is harder to apply when we talk about transatlantic flights.
There's no high-speed train from Austin to Madrid, Octavio.
I've checked.
Lamentablemente no.
Sadly not.
Aunque, si existiera, probablemente pondrías hielo en el café del vagón restaurante y eso sería otro problema.
Although, if it existed, you would probably put ice in the coffee in the dining car and that would be another problem entirely.
The ice thing is not going away, is it.
Look, here's what I keep coming back to.
The Tehran airport story is small.
One airport, two months.
But it's a window into this enormous structural problem: we've built a civilization that runs on combustion.
And the question isn't whether we should stop flying.
The question is whether we can redesign the system fast enough.
Y eso depende de quién tenga el poder para rediseñarlo.
And that depends on who has the power to redesign it.
Lo que hemos visto en la última década es que los países con más emisiones son también los que tienen más capacidad para liderar la transición, pero también los que más tienen que perder a corto plazo.
What we have seen in the last decade is that the countries with the most emissions are also those with the most capacity to lead the transition, but also those with the most to lose in the short term.
Es una trampa estructural.
It is a structural trap.
And Iran, coming out of this war, is going to be focused on reconstruction, on restoring its economy, on resuming oil exports.
Climate is not going to be item one on that government's agenda.
Which I understand, but which also means global emissions won't be going down.
No, y hay que ser honesto con eso.
No, and we have to be honest about that.
El activismo climático a veces habla como si la solución fuera simplemente querer más.
Climate activism sometimes talks as if the solution were simply a matter of wanting it more.
Pero la realidad es que un país que necesita reconstruirse después de una guerra no puede permitirse el lujo de elegir la opción más cara y verde.
But the reality is that a country that needs to rebuild after a war cannot afford the luxury of choosing the most expensive green option.
Eso es un privilegio de los países ricos.
That is a privilege of wealthy countries.
Which brings us back to climate justice.
And I think that's where we have to leave this, because there's no clean resolution.
The planes are flying again out of Tehran.
That's a relief.
And it's also a reminder that the system we've built is extraordinarily hard to change from the inside.
Sí.
Yes.
Y quizás lo más importante que podemos hacer es seguir nombrando esa dificultad con honestidad, sin pretender que las soluciones son fáciles ni que la gente es mala por querer viajar.
And perhaps the most important thing we can do is keep naming that difficulty honestly, without pretending that the solutions are easy or that people are bad for wanting to travel.
La complejidad no es el enemigo.
Complexity is not the enemy.
La deshonestidad sobre esa complejidad sí lo es.
Dishonesty about that complexity is.
Alright.
One thing I want to come back to before we close, actually.
You said something a few minutes ago that I want to ask you about.
You said the aviation sector defends its interests "con mucha eficacia." Con mucha.
I know what that means, obviously.
But why not "muy eficazmente"?
Is there a difference?
Buena pregunta.
Good question.
Las dos formas son correctas, pero funcionan de manera diferente.
Both forms are correct, but they work differently.
"Muy eficazmente" usa el adverbio directamente.
'Muy eficazmente' uses the adverb directly.
"Con mucha eficacia" usa un sustantivo, "eficacia", con una preposición.
'Con mucha eficacia' uses a noun, 'eficacia', with a preposition.
La segunda suena más formal, más propia del registro escrito.
The second sounds more formal, more typical of written register.
Y quizás tiene más peso, más énfasis.
And perhaps it carries more weight, more emphasis.
So it's less about grammar and more about register.
Like the difference in English between saying someone did something "very effectively" versus "with great effectiveness." The second one sounds like you're testifying in court.
Exacto, esa es una comparación muy útil.
Exactly, that's a very useful comparison.
En español este patrón es muy productivo: puedes decir "con gran cuidado" en lugar de "muy cuidadosamente", "con total claridad" en lugar de "muy claramente".
In Spanish this pattern is very productive: you can say 'con gran cuidado' instead of 'muy cuidadosamente', 'con total claridad' instead of 'muy claramente'.
Suena más elaborado, y a veces más contundente.
It sounds more elaborate, and sometimes more forceful.
Es una herramienta que vale la pena tener.
It's a tool worth having.
I'm going to try that the next time I'm at a family dinner in Madrid and someone asks me what I think of the tortilla.
"La comí con total satisfacción." How's that?
La gramática es perfecta.
The grammar is perfect.
La pronunciación, bueno, trabajaremos en eso.
The pronunciation, well, we'll work on that.
Pero es un progreso notable, Fletcher.
But it's notable progress, Fletcher.
Con gran progreso, de hecho.
With great progress, in fact.