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.

I'm just genuinely astounded anyone can defend regular flying. Are you all in denial about the danger we are in, or is it just that you don't want to think about the shitty decisions you are making, on the basis that other people also make shitty decisions?

Do you realise that climate change is likely to kill your children, in your lifetime?

LOL
Like I said on a thread a few weeks ago when people were calling big families for the planet being doomed, you’re all playing your part in the planet being doomed if you live in the modern world. So many people who think they are better than others and who can tell others what to do when they do just as much. It’s laughable.

I'm delighted to benefit from return flights costing as little as £30 but I don't understand how it can be justified economically

In some cases - they carry cargo.

funinthesun19 you are right of course we all should do out part.

But you are missing the fact that having children, especially lots in them is the most harmful thing you can do

Ethelfleda, I agree with what you say about consumerism, it's obscene how much stuff there is to buy, all this stuff that we've been brainwashed into thinking we HAVE to have.

I also agree with DuesToTheDirt about flying to see family.

I work with someone who sets aside a budget of £500 per month to spend on clothes. Every. Month.

It actually makes me feel a bit sick.

We need the population to stabilize and perhaps very gradually decline, we tend to focus on the dangers of population explosions but not think about the dangers of population implosions
Both these processes are nonlinear

Well, we no longer live in the past, Due, so I'll hop right on a plane and see my ageing parents. Not sure why anyone has to defend it, dotty.

@dottyboxes How absurd.

Her£500 every month is hers to spend as she chooses and what a boost to the economy !!!!!

Nobody needs £500 worth of new clothes every month.

Flobo and what do you think happens to her reams of brand new clothes when she's through with them? She wears them for six months tops then bins them. Yes, bins them.

Not sure why anyone has to defend it, dotty.

You'll be explaining to your children then that they'll likely die starving and early due to the fact that people were selfish to make lifestyle changes.

People. Will. Die. Not the people of the future you don't care about, people who are alive right now, in western countries with good economies.

I think I'd be a nervous wreck if I lived with you dotty. A depressed, nervous, wreck.

But it's her choice.

It's boosting the economy.

Perhaps she takes her old stuff to charity shops.

What a lot of busybodies there are.

We need to think about the root causes of the issues. Sorry if it sounds pretentious but I'm convinced that there is a deep crisis in the world because of 3 simple things:
WHO owns and controls the means of production (see the stats about 1% owning half the planet essentially), that's only getting worse. We're losing control.
HOW stuff is produced - we're still in an oil based civilisation (includes plastic, which is derived from oil), where is clean energy? How can we make it viable?
WHERE stuff is produced- ie low wage economies, unstable and mostly undemocratic countries.
All 3 combined show that there is no balance in the world and THAT is the root problem. We won't save the environment unless we achieve better balance globally. Anything else is papering over the cracks.

What's the best way to reduce birth rates? Educate girls! Most of the world outside of Western countries don't do it enough. Also stabilise regimes and tackle corruption rather than stoking conflicts: that'll help entire continents get more prosperous and therefore less populated!
Basically, I'm saying this whole debate about flying or not is so bloody typical of our Western bubble we can't see the woods for the tree!

mbosnz

We should all be depressed, nervous wrecks. Then we might actually get our arses in gear and do something.

Perhaps she takes her old stuff to charity shops

No, she bins it. She doesn't agree with charity shops.

She talks freely about it, frequently.

Also the economy counts for absolutely nothing if the planet is screwed.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/02/the-devastation-of-human-life-is-in-view-what-a-burning-world-tells-us-about-climate-change-global-warming

You should be a nervous wreck!!

@dotty - nothing is going to stop me getting on a plane to visit family. We can’t all live in the same area of the country as our parents, in laws and children

We can’t all live in the same area of the country as our parents, in laws and children

We absolutely can. We choose not to.

And all this crap about it being ‘good for the economy’ is another way of saying that money and wealth is more important than the environment! Nobody needs to spend £500 per month on new clothes. It’s grotesque, actually.
£500 on any new stuff! Gadgets, appliances, beauty products in their plastic packaging... they all have to be produced and transported! They all have a carbon footprint!

And reducing the population is too simplistic - the population has to have a lower carbon footprint which means we have to live differently!

Also the economy counts for absolutely nothing if the planet is screwed

This!! You can’t eat or drink money!

We need to think about the root causes of the issues.

We have. Too many people.

Next !

i actually hate flying, and can't do it without tranquilizers.
but being in the UK there aren't much alternatives. If more people gave up flights, do you imagine the increase in congestion on the ground? As for boats - I love a cruise, but they aren't very environmentally friendly either