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.

Stop everyone from traveling, and instead of holidays or studies abroad

Mate, unless something is done, you won't have anywhere to go on holiday to.

I have to say I'm with the people who say not having children (or max 1 per household) is the real answer.

Frankly if to save the world we all have to only ever stay within a walkable distance of where we live....is it a world/ life worth living?? 100% agree that choice isn't fair for us to make if it's our children's futures. But if we don't have children, until this world is fixed again (if that's even possible) then it's perfectly fair.

TheAverageJuror

I'm highly wary of single-note reports like that - quite aside from the fact that they are simply a prop to the "nothing to worry about" brigade, they also tend to be myopic. There would be a hell of a carbon bill to pay in undertaking the project to reforest parts of the earth. You'd also run the risk of monocultures, and fucking up even more of the planet where you completely fail to grasp how the ecosystem worked.

100% agree that choice isn't fair for us to make if it's our children's futures
...the future for our children... who we shouldn't have...

No one said you cant have a child.

But we need to limit the amount.

Agree with other posters who have said that the rich / powerful / Royalty etc should lead by example. Cut down or eliminate their private jets etc, and have smaller families. Wasn't Prince William banging on about overpopulation while he has 3 children?

As usual, it's do as I say not as I do.

Its hard for most people to envisage such a joyless existence with no flights abroad, second hand clothing etc.

I have to say I'm with the people who say not having children (or max 1 per household) is the real answer.

Maybe nature is helping ? First victim of population stress tends to be fertility - after all, no point in more competing for less if it risks the entire species. Maybe behaviour - less instinct to have children and less behaviour to have children ? Be curious about any research into how other species might adapt ... one idea which strikes me is if the mother dies in childbirth, you achieve a pretty quick one-in one-out ratio. It would leave men to do the childcare, of course. Which would be ... interesting . Especially if it involved breastfeeding. Who knows, we may have just solved the mystery of mens nipples

Or am I thinking the too unthinkable ?

Also, until China starts being more environmentally friendly then anything we do is probably for naught. Aren't they building a new coal fired power station every few weeks?

Its hard for most people to envisage such a joyless existence with no flights abroad, second hand clothing etc.

My existence isn't joyless at all. I and my son both have lovely clothes - boden, fat face, topshop, hush, frugi, pretty much everything - all in excellent condition from ebay or charity shops. For my birthday the other week I got some brand new Russell & Bromley gold high heels for £5, and a bravissimo dress for £7.

We have had some absolutely lovely holidays in the UK. Last year we went to Cornwall on the train, and this year we are going to a farm in Wales and also to Scotland.

We eat delicious food.

There is plenty of joy in my existence without the need to constantly buy new stuff or fly abroad.

I have a lot of respect for all you do dottyboxes. I truly mean that.

@LaminateAnecdotes I agree there is a risk and it would have to be very carefully planned, but the CO2 will not magically disappear. It needs to be filtered out. If you look at deforestation and rising temperatures timelines, it fits.

I don't agree that it's a prop for "nothing to worry about" people though.

I just believe that JUST lowering our emmissions is nowhere near enough what needs to be done. We need to plant as well.

Imagine the change if all streets like on pic 1 would be turned into something like pic 2. Cooling down the streets, filtering the air.
Plants are not a magical cure, but they are a big help. If cities got greener, the difference would show.
And it's not just CO2 issue. Small animals, insects, bees, birds. They would thrive in environment like this.

*Photo of google. Bask in a glory of my "photoshop" skills😁

Thank you mbosnz.

So many people round near me have completely paved their gardens, I noticed this the other day.

Or they have that weird plastic grass.

dotty so you get joy from spending time with your son whilst reducing your foot print elsewhere.

But then you still have a child. I don't so that is the cut off down my side of the family for future humans to use the earths resources. But according to this thread I should now give up flying, give up my car, give up eating meat and god knows what else because other people say so. But it's still ok to have a child or two because you can't give them back as someone said. Again it's other people deciding arbitrarily on what is right or wrong based on their own decisions.

@dottyboxes (and others)

yes the changes you are making ARE tiny changes, which is why they won't make a scrap of difference. This isn't about a few plastic bags, and our individual carbon footprints. Your footprints are far less green than you imagine they are, anyway.

so let's :

Stop using sewage systems (mined and smelted metal, and or plastic),

Stop modern transportation systems - they guzzle the same things -planes, container ships, trains, cars.

Stop electricity, gas, medicine,

Stop holiday travel.

electric cars? is there enough rare earth elements for the batteries that will be needed. The only way to do electric cars, is to re-charge the car batteries as they drive, so they don't need massive batteries. We need safe nuclear power for that, and lots of it.

Stop eating food that isn't grown in your county. (county, not country)

Stop computers. Stop mining bitcoins. (have you seen the cost of those). Stop modern housing.

All of that is how we end up back in a feudal system, or something equally unpleasant, with nice short green life-spans.

That's why Africa is poverty stricken - It's like we were a few hundred years ago.

WhoAre I would not have had a child if I realised the extent of the danger we are now in and the kind of life he will most likely have to lead. Unfortunately I didn't at the time, so here he is.

Like I said, as soon as I realised how bad flying was, I stopped. I'd done plenty of flying before that. There's nothing wrong with being ignorant. I do find it strange when people know how dreadful something is for the environment and continue doing it regardless.

For instance, small thing but until 6 months ago I didn't have a clue that teabags contain plastic and therefore are not biodegradable. I know now, so I use tea leaves.

His was not a choice. I very much doubt the vast majority of posters on this thread who live away from family do so because they were fleeing war zones.

So not being able to earn enough to put a roof over your head and eat means you should stay put because it fits in your paradigm? You're bordering on lunacy, tbh. LOADS of people in the UK have to leave where they are born for precisely this reason. . Silly proles!

yes the changes you are making ARE tiny changes, which is why they won't make a scrap of difference.

Well of course not, but if every fucker who said they wouldn't bother because it won't make a scrap of difference did make, imagine how much of a difference would be made. It's like when people say they won't bother voting because it won't make a difference.

I don't really care how small a difference what I do makes, it's better than doing nothing at all and you can be as snippy as you want about it. Like I say, I make the changes I am able to make within the constraints of my life.

dotty now you know how 'bad' having children is for using up resources will you be telling your son he is selfish to have children? Will you be disappointed if he did?

I just don't see how people can arbitrarily decide what other people should or shouldn't do.

Will you be disappointed if he did?

Frankly, given the life they'd have if the earth continues how it is, yes I would.

Agree with other posters who have said that the rich / powerful / Royalty etc should lead by example. Cut down or eliminate their private jets etc, and have smaller families.

Sounds good, but completely misses the entire point of scrabbling for - and holding onto - privilege. Sorry, but William the Bastard did not invade England just to see one of his descendants pissing around with the peasantry.

I agree the rich and famous set an absolutely hideous example. Even the instagram influencers have a lot to answer for, Clemmie Telford with her million gifted holidays and Susie bloody Verrill saying how great it is to travel the world with your children. Irresponsible.

Kate & William too.

That's great you're doing what suits your life, dotty, I think many people are, too. Mine includes flying long-haul to get urgent treatment for my son who cannot get it here without waiting months we don't really have so I can't say I feel bad about it.

Mine includes flying long-haul to get urgent treatment for my son who cannot get it here without waiting months we don't really have so I can't say I feel bad about it.

And do you think most people who fly are doing it because of an essential reason like that, or do you think they are doing it because they want to go on a nice holiday?