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Are Frequent Fliers to Blame for Extreme Weather Delays? Should Fear of Climate Change Make Us Stop Flying?

The holidays saw a series of extreme weather delays around the world. Will it make us reconsider our extreme behavior when it comes to air travel?

The truth of the situation didn't occur to me until the second time I tried to depart from Newark Airport in three days. My original flight, like thousands of others, had been canceled courtesy of the Boxing Day Blizzard up and down the East Coast, which poured more than two feet of snow, unleashed 60 mile-per-hour winds, and brought perpetually resilient New York City to a grinding halt. Thousands of flights were canceled and tens of thousands of passengers were stranded in a debacle that's estimated to cost the airlines more than $150 million. As I tried desperately to board a flight—any flight—that would take me to Denver, my fellow passengers screamed at gate agents, barked into their cell phones at hold messages, and called Continental unpublishable names on Twitter. But I didn't blame the airlines. I blamed myself.

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