To ask you to stop flying

[Walkingthere]

We are facing a climate disaster. Our children will have to live through it. And yet I overheard two women today discussing how many holidays abroad they had been on this year. Both over 60 years of age. Obviously it will not directly impact on them.
This is also very common in my social group, people jetting off 4-5 times a year. Mini-breaks, weekends away, European trips, long haul, hen do's, weddings, birthdays. It's unbelievable how much people are burying their heads in the sand.

We need to stop flying. Urgently. Now. My family have not flown in over 5 years. We used to travel a lot, before we realised the consequences. I am putting this here, to make people think, we all need to urgently reduce (ideally stop) flying now.

That's nice for you, Dotty, DH got priced out of his home city, guess he should have just lived in a wheelie bin for environmental purposes.

Industry and coal in particular are major causes of climate change. Not seeing friends and family abroad is a pointless sacrifice. Also the internet requires huge energy. On that note I'm off 😉

when we have immersive VR and AR the potential for remote working will expand
A lot of the communities my trainees work with don't have food, let alone cell phone coverage or Wi-Fi.
So no.

Yes, I live ten minutes away from my family. My son was born in the same hospital I was born in.

Do you really believe that's possible for everyone?

I've not read the whole thread, but here's some thoughts.

See. Individuals will not modify their behaviour in any way to reduce comsumption. governments need to ban foreign holidays, and impose capital exchange controls to prevent you taking spending money. Then for some countries like Spain. Greece and so on, major portions of their economy get smashed.

In the UK travel agents, holiday businesses, airlines etc will collapse. So mayor portions of our economy get smashed. Thousands/millions out of work.

The end of the green agenda is a world wide recession, and eventually a decline in living standards. Not the 2008 not-a-real-decline, but a genuine return to a sort of feudal economy, but luckily polar bears will be fine.

You won't vote for the government that wants to impose travel bans, and ration petrol, and so on.

IN MY OPINION

LaminateAnecdotes

However if you had said "What amazes me is how many people are willing to see other peoples kids suffer in it" you'd have been closer to the mark.

This ^

You can ask as much as you like but I've flown even less than you: once in the last 14 years.

Sorry love you are well out of order. Yes there is an issue, stopping everyone from flying is not going to stop that, and all you will do is make millions unemployed across the world, that will impact on the economy, so what’s your suggestion to replace those jobs then? Airlines, like many other transport firms are looking at other fuels, companies are trying to do their bit, but go take your campaign to those countries not reducing emissions, and leave us who are doing our best alone to enjoy our life as we wish, knowing the impact it may have

You chose to have children, you could have thought about the situation before and not had them, so why should we all stop flying because you are concerned about that

whatever we do as individuals will have fuck all impact. India, China the USA have to get on board to make any impact at all. I'll keep flying thanks.

It's bit frustrating that everyone argues about what not to do and not to eat to lower their emissions, but no one talks about how to lower the CO2 which is already there. It's not going to magically disappear because 10 people decides not to fly. Or thousands. Or millions.
🤷‍♀️
It's there.

IMHO we wouldn't have this problems even with our current lifestyles uf we didn't get rid of all that forests.

Restricting movement just plays into racist narratives BTW.

Humans are fucked. It doesn't matter that some people can see this, as a species we are too fucking stupid to survive.

We are hell bent on destroying the system that keeps us alive, it is evolution in action.

The planet will still be here, it just won't be able to support us anymore. Eventually, once we are gone and the reactors have done their thing, the nuclear winter will abate and new species will take over. Who knows, maybe they won't be so bloody dumb?

I think the best that can be hoped for now is that the two children I have had will still have OK lives before it is completely destroyed. I adore my children, and as a result I wish I had not had them.

I think Pratchett got this (along with so many other things):

"From stone’s point of view the universe is hardly created and mountain ranges are bouncing up and down like organ-stops while continents zip backwards and forwards in generally high spirits, crashing into each other from the sheer joy of momentum and getting their rocks off. It is going to be quite some time before stone notices its disfiguring little skin disease and starts to scratch, which is just as well."

Except I think the planet is going to start scratching soon.

He left early, to avoid the rush it would seem.

No thank you. I'll carry on.

The trouble is, as this thread proves, without traveling and broadening ones horizons, people become obsessed with things to cover up for their being stuck at home with gas guzzling children, unfulfilled and lonely. Go out, explore and live life rather than needing a cause.

@M3lon

Sorry, but you’re just wrong:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding-meat-and-dairy-is-single-biggest-way-to-reduce-your-impact-on-earth

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/give-meat-completely-become-flexitarian-save-planet-say-experts/amp/

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/environment/2019/01/commission-report-great-food-transformation-plant-diet-climate-change

I’m not saying it’s the only thing we need to do, but criticising people for taking flights while continuing to consume meat is totally hypocritical and focusing on the wrong issue. You would have to be taking an inordinate number of flights per year for it to come close to the environmental impact of consuming meat and dairy regularly.

Nah, we fly so rarely. Much more effective ways to reduce carbon impact.

Much more effective ways to reduce carbon impact.

What are they?

Tourism is the lifeline for many third world countries. Bali, for example. $200 to my tour guide for a day will feed his family for a month. They rely on holidayers to live.

There is nothing stopping you giving money to local charities or even setting up one yourself. You can give money without adding to the environmental impact of tourism, if supporting the locals was your priority.

They rely on something that's not sustainable long term.

Threads like this really scare me, it makes me realise that the majority of people are completely unwilling to help themselves in any way that might inconvenience them a little bit.
The planet is dying, we're all going to die with it at this rate. At this point foreign holidays should be the furthest thing from people's minds.

The tit for tat attitude isn't going to help us now though, is it? There's plenty of things we can all do/could have done to reduce our carbon footprints. Not flying as much is one of them, a big one, it's what the thread is specifically about so that's why I'm talking about it 🤷

FFS why have a go at people who aren't making the exact same choices. Whether it's not flying, not driving, not having kids or not eating meat - all this stuff makes a difference and none of us are exactly living off the land in the wilderness with barely a carbon toeprint. I fell out with a supposedly good friend because she took against disposable coffee cups and started literally having a go at people who work in coffee shops on a regular basis - she flies at least 3 times a year and buys other plastic wrapped stuff, only has a thing about coffee for some reason. Fucking ridiculous.

The main problem is that all economies are based around making money as the top priority, no governments will make any environmental concessions that risk losing their place in the money making pecking order, and unless that changes, anything your average person does is just fiddling round the edges. Pathetic one upmanship is a total waste of time.