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.

Overpopulation and the massive environmental impact of resource use by those in the developed world ...

I think low cost airfares have a lot to answer for.

How many children do you have op?

You need to direct your moral crusade at businesses who could use Skype etc rather than sending people to meetings.

A total aside, but there's usually good reason for having people attend in person (related to business objectives). Otherwise they wouldn't do it as it costs a fuck tonne more money than a Skype call.

Nice virtue signalling OP. It must be exhausting to be so sanctimonious all the time.

Is this a wind up? I have a few holidays abroad each year but I don't have children. Can I offset not having kids against my holidays? I assume you don't have a car OP?

Blimey. We have flown twice so far this year, once long haul and once to southern med. Did we think about ice in the Arctic? Not for one second. Some of our friends fly 5 or 6 times per year at least.

But in mitigation, dh has announced he will no longer use cling film 😬

Give up trying to save the planet op and chill out. Accept the inevitable. You can't save the world, no one can. Unless you can get literally all 7 billion people on board, stop all of the production plants, clean the oceans, etc. And that's not remotely possible.

Sorry to be bleak, but I am right. Recycling cans and not going on your holidays isn't going to save the planet. Enjoy yourself while it lasts.

Yes it's ridiculous how much people fly.

I think we'd do better with a personal carbon footprint we're allowed to use (to increase awareness) and then we can all make adjustments.

I didn't fly for 10 years but I had to own a car. This year I've no car as I've moved to a city but I have flown on a plane.

The vast, vast majority of people are fucking up the planet.

There aren't many childless, vegan, non driving, non travelling, non pet owning, minimal consumption, local food only, living in entirely sustainable homes types out there, now are there?

Im flying from edinburgh going to charles de gaulle next week with my wee boy. Do i cancel my flight and drive to france instead? Id rather fly than drive for hours upon hours just to from scotland to get to the ferry at dover then 3+ hours driving the other side. 1hr 55 in the sky suits me better and its less stressful

John Travolta and his private jet maybe deserves your ire. Your parents enjoying a weekend in the sun via a flight that 200 others will also be taking? Let them enjoy it.

Second everything that santaclara said. It's tragic but it's true.

Your recycling may make you feel better in the short term but it's impact is so minimal in the overall scheme of things you probably might as well not bother.

People inevitably pick the thing they don't do to feel judgemental about. I can't drive, so always use public transport or walk. When people try to get me to feel guilty for taking long haul flights (about five times in my life) I just think: do you have a car? If so, what's your carbon footprint? Bet it's bigger than mine.

Do what you can do to make a difference and accept that other people do different things to make a difference.

LaurieMarlow

It sucks, it really does. But it's pointless. We are recycling cans and plastics, sure. How many plants are there out there creating the damn stuff? And they will keep doing it. The impact from them outweighs our recycling by so much. It just makes us feel better.

What are you suggesting? That people should spend their entire lives in the country where they were born?

I kind of agree santa (though people get angry when you say it). I think it's basically too late to fix, humanity is on its way out I reckon. Also, I know a few ppl who preach about the flying thing and it kind of grates because they're all people who've flown to far more places than I have but now they've had a 'realisation' (and they've been everywhere they want to go) and now they want to lecture everyone else about it endlessly. The other thing is people who are retired that have the time to spend 3 days on a train or whatever. Before anyone has a go: I barely fly, don't drive, eat minimal meat/dairy and don't have kids.

@puzzledlady, don’t tell the commoners about the flying cars!

Give up trying to save the planet op and chill out. Accept the inevitable. You can't save the world, no one can. Unless you can get literally all 7 billion people on board, stop all of the production plants, clean the oceans, etc. And that's not remotely possible.

Tend to agree, the damage has been done.

I know i sound sanctimonious and i know i am destroying the world myself in so many ways. The future is bleak because of what we are all doing.

I really do feel powerless and helpless in the face of the rape of this planet. Anyone see Simon Reeve in Southern Spain - fields and fields and fields of plastic covering the tomatoes/aubergines/other crops that will then be flown to UK for sale. And this is single use plastic - it's removed in winter and left to blow away, pretty much. Should be recycled/disposed off but just seemed to be left to clog up the waterways.

I recycle, grow my own tomatoes, reuse and take on board the advice about single use plastic (all plastic, really) but what can one person do when millions of others are just carrying on until we all drown in plastic?

It is certainly one thing people can think about cutting back on when thinking about their impact.

@RedTriangle

Do you do / own any of the following?:
Drive a car?
Have mains electricity / gas?
Have uPVC windows?
Have children?
Buy ANY packaged food from the supermarket?
Use clingfilm?
Eat meat?
Eat anything from another country?
Was the phone / laptop you used to post on here from another country?

If the answer was yes to any of the above, then please sort out your own mess before you decide someone taking a flight is immoral. We take several long haul flights a year as we live in a different country to our families, I am not immoral thank you very much.

Good that you feel this. You are waking up. Join this - or at least promote it and spread the info. Thank you. Guilt is a waste of energy. risingup.org.uk/XR/

It’s funny isn’t it, how easy it is to pick the one environmentally damaging thing you personally don’t do, and criticise everyone else for it?

• parents of only children all had them so as not to over populate
• those who use cloth nappies criticising everyone who doesn’t
• those who don’t travel abroad criticising those who do

-those who get the bus to work criticising car drivers

Meanwhile no one is campaigning to put world wide governments to task about their production methods