To think flying off on holidays is immoral?

[RedTriangle]

Anyone planning to fly off on holidays?

“Every round-trip ticket on flights from New York to London, keep in mind, costs the Arctic three more square meters of ice”
nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html

I live near an airport and there is a steady stream of planes landing and taking off. It feels ominous now in light of the recent WWF report talking about life on earth being wiped out.

There are posts on mumsnet on the section about long haul travel where people are talking about flying off with their families to Thailand or Mexico etc not thinking or not caring about the impact! Future generations won’t be jetting off and living lives like this as we will have destroyed the planet and they will be scrambling to survive.

My parents have booked a weekend in Spain! They regularly do this and they will be long gone while future people pay a terrible price.

YANBU. Everyone is a hypocrite, that doesn't mean we all should give up.

However I think it's a 50/50 split between people who are completely deluded and people who think what's the point.

I live in Australia and in my state there is a drought for many years. It is now to the point where farmers are screwed, their livestock are starving as it's too dry to grow feed for them. People talk about hoping/praying for rain (!) and donating money so the farmers can buy hay to "get them through this time". Talk about deluded! There isnt going to be any significant rain here, ever again. We need to face the fact that this part of Australia is no longer suitable for farming. Any money donated should be used to relocate farmers and train them in different careers.

Its hard. The thought of me not having a much wanted dc to "save the environment", meanwhile others have 5/fly 10 x per year/single use everything, plus the role of industry, well I couldn't do it.

thursdaydreaming

Bang on.

And again. It is not about halting climate change. As has been said approximately five million times on here, that ship has sailed.

But minimising damage as far of possible is always possible and desirable.

Especially since the choices we make as (over)comsumers have an effect on people right now.

There is a lot we can do. But almost certainly no, we can’t halt climate change. Of course not.

And we could afford to fly long haul . Jesus. Not the point at all. We choose not to, unless we had a really good reason to. Lying on a beach, eating and drinking does not count as a good reason (to me). Others disagree and that’s fine, but it is nothing to do with envy.

Lying on a beach, eating and drinking does not count as a good reason (to me)

There’s way way more to travelling abroad than that.

What I think is immoral is that there are people who have more than they need when there are people who have less than they need.

What I think is immoral is that there are people who have more than they need when there are people who have less than they need
So basically everyone who lives in the developed world is immoral? riiiiight.

Er, yes, really. I will admit when I posted that I wasn't thinking on a global scale but on a societal, UK scale, but yes, I do think that while so much of the human race is living in poverty and squalor then we in the more 'developed' countries should be at least grateful that we're here. But they do say charity begins at home, so curing the ills of your own country before embarking on curing the ills of another is less arrogant.

I can see why some other societies think that western nations are decadent though, can't you?

I'm grateful for this thread, it's helped me sort out my thoughts and talk to my family about changes to make.
I think we're all dealing with our anxiety about the negative impacts of our fossil fuel burning party in our own way - denial, blame, minimisation, justification, wonky rationalisations, apathy, defeatism, outright aggression.
None of that is working for me. I'm looking for a better way to think and talk about this that doesn't involve defensiveness. I believe how we communicate matters a lot. I like faery's solution of acceptance, compassion, efforts of mitigation. That's logical and decent.
I like optimism as well though, I'm less narky and get more done that way. We are selfish idiots a lot of the time but we also have big hearts and an amazing ability to innovate and find solutions.
The over - consuming lifestyle we are presented with as ideal never made me happy really, only more anxious, image conscious, poor and unhealthy and cut off from other people. Every step to slow down , simplify and change has been more than worth it. I've got a bit complacent though and can see tons more to do now - am going to go and bother the folk on the ethical living board!
Hug a frequent flyer or something .

Thanks false .