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.

without even the slightest acknowledgment that their desire to have children is one of the biggest contributing factors

I completely acknowledge that. When I had him I was utterly ignorant of the consequences of overpopulation. However, I can't exactly return him now, can I?

@S0CKS
Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. You can't offset your flights by trying to reduce your impact in other areas. Own your decision properly.

You choose to fly a lot which undoubtedly damages our environment. If everyone on the planet flew as much as you do what do you think would be the impact? Do you care?

Travel is a pleasurable pursuit for most people, however the earth simply cannot accommodate us all becoming jet setters and indulging in this passion.

So what exactly do you do to reduce your carbon footprint? Please go on and tell us, I’d love my turn to be judgy and tell you you could be doing better.

I don't fly, I don't own or drive a car, I do have one child but won't be having any more, I don't eat meat and I am raising my son not to eat meat too, I don't have a garden but I grow what I can in window boxes, I recycle everything I can and compost my food waste, I buy as much as possible at my local zero waste shop, my son and I both wear second hand clothes.

I am not perfect, no one is, but what I am not doing is saying oh well I won't bother doing anything, because such and such does X.

I do what is possible for me in the constraints of my own life, even though some of it is inconvenient to me.

Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. You can't offset your flights by trying to reduce your impact in other areas. Own your decision properly.

Why not? How did you decide this?

I don't fly, I don't own or drive a car, I do have one child but won't be having any more, I don't eat meat and I am raising my son not to eat meat too, I don't have a garden but I grow what I can in window boxes, I recycle everything I can and compost my food waste, I buy as much as possible at my local zero waste shop, my son and I both wear second hand clothes.

That's pretty good, dotty. Respect!

And I eat seasonally.

Of course I could do loads of stuff better, that goes without saying. That doesn't mean I don't have the right to point out where others could do better. I don't object when people do it to me.

I'll be judgy as much as I like when people don't give a fuck about the state of the planet. It's one thing when you don't realise, and then you learn, and you change. It's quite another when you know full well what damage you are doing and blithely continue.

Gth1234, maybe you are not a hypocrite, and I accept that the loss of polar bears or a multitude of other creatures might not have an impact on you personally, but you are woefully underestimating the impact that all this will have on the human race, including those of us in the West.

Temperatures are set to rise to an extent where it will be impossible for humans to survive in may parts of the world. Do you think that those living in Africa, or those living in the hotter parts of Europe are going to stay where they are, shrug their shoulders and die. There is already increasing migration and that will increase manyfold. There will be wars over land and water. Australia will be in big trouble. Those with money will be heading anywhere with cooler climates.

Please, please, keep yourself informed.

I am fed up of being peached to about climate change. Even the likes of David beckham has jumped on the bandwagon and yet he still managed to take 30 first class long haul flights last year and god only knows what the total would be if you added in his kids and Victoria.

David Attenborough although a great spokesperson for climate change has probably a larger carbon footprint than most. He has spent a life time jetting around the world with his camera crew.

Temperatures are set to rise to an extent where it will be impossible for humans to survive in may parts of the world.

Or maybe they have already risen ? It's not all about humans, you know. There are countless (as yet unknown) microbes and insects that feed upon microbes and animals that feed on insects and plants that need insects to reproduce out there. And some could be wiped out by a .5C change in average seasonal temperature. That point is already behind us by years.

Maybe in a couple of years, when another bacterial or microbial species dies out because it's warmed up too much, we'll discover how they were responsible for killing of something really nasty that can now overwhelm us. With the added fact that by choosing to live in cities - where there is a plentiful supply of hosts victims some diseases really have no interest in keeping a host alive beyond the time it takes to spread.

And it won't take much of a rise in temperature to see malaria coming back into fashion (although, like flares, it never really left). Although that might help reduce some air travel, since we can enjoy that African misery at home ....

@AlaskanOilBaron
It doesn't offset the flying because it doesn't diminish the environmental impact of the flights. Unless you are spending time actively planting rainforests or whatever then it's hard to truly offset any of the damage we do. We aren't all issued a quota of single use plastic etc that you can save to offset against the emissions caused by flying. It just doesn't work like that.

The fact you could have made worse decisions in other areas of your life is largely irrelevant other than you may have a smaller footprint overall then if you were to fly and partake in other activities and behaviour that damages the environment.

Laminate - I'm the very last person to say this is all about humans! As far as I'm concerned, we are all very much interconnected with other inhabitants of this planet, from microbes to whales. I was simply trying to shake someone who thinks she won't be touched by this.

I mentioned this morning's report about the increase in infectious diseases upthread. The hotter it gets, the more we shall be affected. But, never mind, lets get the bikinis out.

It doesn't offset the flying because it doesn't diminish the environmental impact of the flights. Unless you are spending time actively planting rainforests or whatever then it's hard to truly offset any of the damage we do. We aren't all issued a quota of single use plastic etc that you can save to offset against the emissions caused by flying. It just doesn't work like that.

You do realise that there's more than one emergency unfolding at the moment, right? What if the PP uses no plastic and you use a ton, she flies and you don't?

I think it's weird that people are so focused on climate change to the exclusion of other issues, like biodiversity or plastics or bees or antibiotic resistance.... and so on.

David Attenborough has never owned a car or passed his driving test yet to make the life of birds documentary he traveled a total of 256000 miles which is equal ttravelling around the world ten times and who knows how many others involved in the making also travelled and how far as he didn’t make it on his own.
The life of birds was a great documentary but it is not worth the carbon footprint it created.

It's all part of the same problem isn't it? It's what we do that causes climate change AND is killing the bees off.

@dottyboxes

the trouble is, if EVERYONE did that, you would be back in the 15th century.

I take it you still rely on medicine, dentistry, electricity, other power supplies, water and sewage services, supermarkets, computers and mobile phones. etc etc.

I also think on balance it is not healthy bringing your son up as a vegetarian. Let him make that decision once he has matured.

I take it you still rely on medicine, dentistry, electricity, other power supplies, water and sewage services, supermarkets, computers and mobile phones. etc etc.

see, going on from that, your entire world is not carbon neutral.

Does dotty use or did use disposable nappies ?

If not how did she clean terry nappies?

David Attenborough has done more than anyone else on the planet to bring the wonders of biodiversity to the man on the street. If we didn't know about these wonders, there would be even more people who wouldn't give a damn about the loss of polar bears.

He may be a hypocrite, like all of us but, in my view, he can be forgiven .

Are all the naysayers waiting for someone else to save the planet!? We’re on course for a 4 degree global temperature rise by the end of the century, could be more if something happens that hasn’t been picked up by climate modelling happens (likely to do with methane release from melting ice). It is bloody terrifying, and unlike anything that’s faced our species before. Maybe we’re biologically not equipped to deal with such an immediate existential crisis? We KNOW it’s happening, has already started, and yet, we continue guzzling, consuming, destroying. Do nice stuff while you still can, but try not to make the situation worse.

Also, can’t believe someone’s had a go at David Attenborough!!!

Flobochin - and here lies the problem. Is it better for the planet to use disposable nappies or to use reusable ones and use energy to wash them? Is it better to be vegan or does mass production of vegetables cause a greater problem.

We need clear answers.

Oh I love David Attenborough. I think he is a national treasure but you can’t get away from the fact that as one of the most well travelled people on the planet his carbon footprint is massive.

Jeez why the pile in in on dotty? Of course she uses services that have a footprint. That's hardly the point. We all have a footprint, the idea is identifying ways to reduce it that are also sensible.

The continuous references to the middle ages are dumb.

I also think on balance it is not healthy bringing your son up as a vegetarian. Let him make that decision once he has matured.

Of course it is, vegetarianism is just as healthy as a meat based diet. He has plenty of protein and iron and is growing and thriving. Did you actively make the decision to feed your child meat? Why didn't you wait until they were mature enough to make their own decision?

As for the other questions, I have already said many times I am not perfect, of course I'm not. But going "HA! YOU DON'T DO X, Y OR Z!" does not logically mean that you don't have to change anything about your own habits. I've changed what I am able to change. You should change what you can, too.

I honestly never used to realise how bad flying was. Since I learned, I haven't flown.