No holidays - carbon footprint

Possibly including having already travelled alot in their life time, have more than one stab a year at getting away and so less likely to want guaranteed sunshine, can afford good and interesting accommodation ,food and locations in the UK, enough leave and where with all to book and travel to Europe without flying , have a nice lifestyle ,home and amenities in the UK day to day.

Yeah absolutely!!

Funnily enough we're discussing moving north and one of the draws is that we'll be closer to Newcastle which will make it easier to get on a ferry and access the continent without flying!

If you hear someone chatting about flight free summer holidays in the pub next year with a Bristolian accent it might be me 😂

My DP and I haven't flown since 2016, not solely on environmental grounds, but it is definitely a factor for us. I do despair of people who fly without a second thought several times a year (including our grownup DC)

It wouldn't stop me going somewhere I really wanted to go but the carbon footprint would be a consideration, and the trip would be a real treat.

I can only think of two other families who make green travel choices (ie train travel within Europe) but there may be other who like us, don't tend to go abroad much; I just don't know their reasons.

Interesting article about Taylor and her environmental impact here

https://thechoatenews.choate.edu/2024/02/28/dont-have-bad-blood-with-taylor-swift/#:~:text=Still%2C%20even%20according%20to%20the,and%207.8%20billion%20people%20worldwide.

We found it after a heated discussion about her latest tour and the impact private jets have on the planet!

It must depend on who you mix with then….I’m northern working class….everyone I know mainly works for nhs or local authority….no one goes on business trips …..everyone flys for their summmer hols …..never heard a discussion around saving the planet….it’s just never a topic of conversation

Yeah I'm actively trying to live the kind of life where the children won't be able to hold me to account at least for any of my environmental choices 😅 sure they'll find something else to be upset with me over but it won't be that!!

Mind you getting them to understand that right now when they're small and want new new new everything and all the mounds of plastic tat is also not at all fun! Thank heavens for charity shops.

I think by some statistics flying causes 4% of carbon emissions, but 70% of those are caused by only 15% of the global population. The worst polluters are people on private jets - people like Taylor Swift - the world's worst polluter with regards to flying. But how many of her adoring fans have said anything about her flights? And what about in the UK, where The Royals are always buzzing around in helicopters while telling us about how concerned they are about the environment. A commercial plane that's half full will still fly. A private jet or helicopter without their one passenger plus entourage won't fly.

This is me and my family. Several others we know in Bristol also. We will fly if there are no other viable options (for example family emergencies as our elderly parents are in Europe), however if it's for leisure travel or viable to do it for work then we'd prefer to avoid planes.

So far I'm yet to experience anyone being preachy about it irl. It's been more of a quiet shift. For example friends with their two small children have been interrailing for their holidays this year and last year. They've not explicitly said they're against flying or lectured anyone about it, they've just changed their own behaviour. Another friend travels a lot for work to Sweden and Finland. She's also started going by train and uses the journey to work en route. Again, she's never explicitly said 'im quitting flying', she just hasn't flown in about 5 years. Several families have switched to holidaying in the UK or driving to Europe and camping.

Think I've had maybe one conversation about the choice not to fly but it was more conversational, informative, light hearted. There were people around the table who still choose to fly and they weren't made to justify themselves or anything like that. Was a friendly chat! However I do think that the more people around you changing their behaviour that the more likely you are to amend yours even slightly.

Just because other people are stupid and destroying the planet doesn't mean you should follow their example

( although since you haven't flown most of your life another flight , another flight is fine )

I didn't fly for 30 years- was skint. I've flown once this year, and am planning another trip soon.

If our sitting MPs and former prime ministers can fly between here and America for a couple of days at a time on a whim, then I'm assuming it's not that big of an emergency and I'm going with that.

I hate the do as I say, not as I do attitude of the wealthy.

I know a few people like this. I always feel guilty about my holidays (see username). But, I try to go short haul rather than long haul, I try to use public transport if possible when there, I am vegetarian and take the train to work. What I do notice is that often those who don’t fly also don’t really care about international travel and so it isn’t really a hardship for them. I also only have one child, whereas the people I know who choose not to fly have more than one.

Likely cut back on short breaks due to flight increases ….we used to go Liverpool to Dublin for a tenner pre covid..….those days are gone

You must get stacks of AL …..we just been to Croatia…2 hrs 15 min flight….not sure how many trains I would have taken starting from NW England….would have taken ages…..the flights cost me 75 quid return …..the train would have far more expensive

Thepeopleversuswork
Agree with this sentiment too

We can't afford holidays abroad. It's camping every other year or staying with relatives for us.

I sometimes pretend it's for the environment though. If someone is being really boring about their multiple holidays, particular if they are a proper sk bore. I might crack and say something like ' oh we don't ski so that future generations get snow" then I feel a bit of an idiot.

I've stopped flying abroad for holidays because oh the environment - not saying I'll never do it again, but so far, only once in the last ten years.
A lot of people I know haven't stopped, but have cut back on multiple weekend minibreaks.

I try and minimise, so short haul ,maximum once a year and only flown a handful of times in my life. I wouldn't tend to be too vocal about it as it will look pretentious and hollier than thou, invites others to say what about this and that, I have more than 2 children which means my track record isn't great environmentally, I know it's a drop in in the ocean etc, I don't want to imply criticism of other people's choices when they might reduce their footprint in other ways, like having no children.

I work in supply chain planning, and sustainability is very much on the agenda for many organisations. It's pretty eye-opening to realise how interconnected and interdependent the world is in creating and selling products of any description. It makes me think of The Good Place, where buying a tomato in 2020 results in minus 1,000 points for someone - we really aren't in control of a lot of the choices we make as an end-user. So I do what I can, where I can - I don't actively choose holidays abroad, we have rich and varied options here in the UK. We grow our own food, and have solar panels (in situ when we moved to this house, but one of the big deciding factors in making an offer), we drive as little as possible and use public transport, etc.

I just used a carbon footprint calculator, but I think it has some flawed logic in it, with assigning fewer points if I had an electric car vs fossil fuel. Electric cars are terrible for the environment during their production phase of existence, and they take something like 6 or 7 years of use before they become 'neutral' - and the batteries only last about 10 years! I really don't feel it's a good enough trade-off for the environment's sake, and would rather own 1 car as long as possible and use it as little as possible.

I know people who refuse to fly unless necessary for environmental reasons.

I very cynically have observed that they are all from very comfortable families for whom it was de rigeur to “summer” in Tuscany or Provence as children and ski in winter so they had their fill of foreign trips when young and can now afford (both financially and emotionally) to be smug about the fact they no longer “feel the need” to fly.

Not quite the same if you are from a family which has never travelled outside the UK.

I do think we need to reduce casual air travel as a society but there is a very self satisfied brand of upper middle class Puritanism around this which I find to be a bit “I’m alright Jack.”

If you have kids are you not worried about them blaming you for your choices now?

It’s not impossible that due to a combination of storm surge and failure of the Thames Barrier, London could be flooded well within their lifetimes. With obvious huge losses of life and a huge number of refugees into the rest of the country. I very much hope it won’t happen but it is not impossible. Let alone any of the other possible effects kids are likely to see in their lifetimes.

I want to be able to look my child in the eye and say we tried is probably a lot of why I limit flights.

No I don’t know anyone either

DH has quite a big conscience about the environment and feels guilty about every impact he has. I do care about the environment and I’ll do things to ease my footprint (like cycle my commute, think hard before consuming new goods, buy sustainably, and get my electricity from wind farms), but I’m a bit more of the mindset that whilst everyone else is destroying the planet by flying everywhere, I might as well get to do some of the fun things I want to do too.

We rarely fly long haul, but I do make him fly to Europe once a year. The rest of the time, we have UK holidays. We like outdoorsy holidays and Europe has more to offer in terms of infrastructure and reliable weather. This year, I convinced him to fly to Europe twice because we were just so sick of the weather.

Having said that, the weather this year has really made me think about how messed up global warming now is and what the future climate is going to be like. We don’t have children, but I do wonder how people with kids aren’t more stressed about the planet they’re leaving behind.

We fly once per year and train for any other holidays - we've gone to France, Italy and Croatia via train.

Agree wirh this. Flying used to be an expensive luxury. And probably should have remained so

I still fly on holiday 2 - 3 x per year. I don't feel too bad about that when business execs are still flying everywhere weekly. My carbon footprint is way lower than theirs

If people didn't choose to fly, the airlines would cut their flight offerings. If other people fly that's their choice, but I've taken a personal decision not to contribute to that.