On October 23rd an Nov. 6th, a group of 15 people met at Bent Creek River Park along the French Broad River and lined the road in front of the Pratt & Whitney access bridge to bring awareness to how Pratt & Whitney and its parent company, Raytheon Technologies, contribute to the climate emergency. Rt 191 and the Blue Ridge Parkway were both busy on these beautiful autumn days. We heard some climate crisis deniers and engine roarers, but we mostly heard supportive horn beeps and had some good conversations. We passed out over 120 flyers to passersby on those 2 days.
Background
As a part of the vast American military industry, Raytheon and it’s subsidiary, Pratt & Whitney, are part of an industry that contributes enormous amounts of carbon emissions to our atmosphere. The aviation sector alone is “a substantial contributor to global warming.” If the aviation industry were a country, it would place sixth in emissions, between Japan and Germany.” (Center for Biological Diversity). Furthermore, the US Pentagon, with its complex web of defense contractors, weaponry, and military bases, is the largest institutional producer of greenhouse gases in the world. (LATimes). It is easy to claim that the Asheville Pratt & Whitney plant will only produce turbine airfoils for jet engines, at least 30% of which will be destined for military plants. But the whole aviation industry, especially the military plane industry, needs to be rethought in order to diminish the impact of carbon emissions on our planet.
