Have you ever wondered why we keep putting off for tomorrow what we can do today, particularly when it comes to the issue of, yes—I’ll say it—global warming? Quite apart from the flat-earth crowd, the people who believe the overwhelming scientific evidence tend to acknowledge a need to do something about this existential threat. But, particularly here in the U.S., we continue to buy gas-guzzling cars, pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, all for the sake of comfort, or status, or some weird need to project machismo.
Conversely, to their credit, aircraft engine and airframe manufacturers have reacted to customer calls for fuel efficiency, albeit all in the name of cost savings and, by extension, profits. The problem remains, however, that we simply don’t have the time to let the free market take care of the problem. If we don’t do something fairly dramatic now, according to most scientists steeped in the subject, we’ll reach a sort of tipping point at which nothing will stop the cascade into what reasonable people would consider a natural disaster.
Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with New Jersey Monthly magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for Aviation International News in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.
