After so many years of celebrating Earth Day, you’d think that people would understand the basic idea of conservation by now. Sigh.
National Geographic enthusiastically reports, “A Navy Super Hornet fighter jet is set to take a supersonic flight on Earth Day on a mix of half biofuel, showcasing the Pentagon’s efforts to reduce the military’s reliance on oil.”
There are some green shadows to the story. The biofuel used by the so-called Green Hornet is from the seed of the Camelina sativa plant, which can be harvested and refined with much less energy use than currently-used biofuels. So, the F/A-18 Super Hornet with biofuels results in fewer carbon emissions than regular F/A-18 Super Hornet jets as it zips around at supersonic speed.
The trouble is, that F/A-18 Super Hornet is still flying around faster than the speed of sound. That requires a tremendous amount of energy, resulting in remarkable carbon emissions. Reducing those emissions is nice, but fails to address the more fundamental issue: Flying hundreds of F/A-18 Super Hornet jets around at such ridiculously fast speeds.
If the Navy truly understood what Earth Day is all about, it would observe the occasion today by not sending any of its F/A-18 Super Hornets up into the air, with or without biofuels.
you should give credit where it is due. this may not seem like much, but, when you broaden this achievement, the emissions, the green tech jobs, and the oil consumption reduction; then extrapolate that times the number of super sonic jet flights made by the military you come up with a chance for significant rewards. every journey starts with one step; to bring the new green hornet out on earth day is a great way to promote green technologies. it’s not just this one flight, it’s the future. unless you are advocating shutting down the entire jet fighter program (not happening), this is the next best thing.
No matter what reasons are given to the public, the constant quest for oil is the root cause of the US military getting sent to many far off places to perform unseemly tasks in our name. I give them credit for doing their part to mitigate that cause, and I think Earth Day is a perfectly justifiable time to demonstrate it. They deserve our support in this initiative, and I only hope it leads to further advancements so that your final dream (fewer jets streaking around at supersonic speed) can be realized.