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Climate change-conscious think-tank IPPR (the Institute for Public Policy Research) has proposed putting 'health warnings' on advertisements for flights and holiday packages which include flying.

Taking to the skies has as direct an impact on the health of the globe as smoking does on an individual's health, the think-tank policy claims.

"The evidence that aviation damages the atmosphere is just as clear as the evidence that smoking kills," IPPR's head of climate change Simon Retallack argues.

But alerting people to the consequences of their actions can be a challenge when that means depriving them of the luxury of travelling as they want to, he acknowledged.

The labels would compare the environmental costs of flying to that of alternative means of transport, such as trains or coaches and calculate the precise carbon output of the flight the customer was considering.

The proposed labelling scheme would help Britons "tackle our addiction to flying", Mr Retallack claimed.

But the warnings, which would state that "flying causes climate change", remain controversial in this sensitive field, where the evidence remains, by some accounts, contested, and governments and business must balance long-term advantage against short-term consumer choice.

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