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.

Watch Cerrnobyl, that will make you think twice about nuclear fuel

They heat and cool their houses with heaters and airconditioners - they don't just suffer in the heat / cold

I’m talking about central heating though, they just heat room by room, in my area, it was with gas-powered units. Where I’m from originally (with roughly the same climate), the whole house is heated evenly, regardless of whether the room is in use. Obviously there will be energy savings when you only heat rooms you are using. That said, Japanese homes are really, really poorly insulated so it’s for the best they don’t have central heating. I find they really like complaining about how hot/cold they are at any given moment .....

You have definitely done the toilet dash in winter, where it feels like an ice box because it’s not been heated. During a particularly bad winter, my toothpaste got a bit frozen

You are right likely about the regional airport thing, construction companies have historically ruined the countryside for little reason. I actually would be highly suspicious of green initiatives in rural areas because they would just likely be ill-considered boondoggles, in the end.

I got to know someone recently who gave up flying altogether 15 years ago. If he ever asks me what I'm doing to help, given he knows I fly for my holidays, I'll tell him I'm praying for divine intervention. (I'm an atheist, in my opinion people voluntarily giving up flying will be as effective as praying.)

I wonder if the human race was wiped out how long the planet would take to recover from global warming?

Maybe never Gin because we will leave the reactors and missiles and plutonium to degrade once we've died.

With no one to look after them it might be 200000 years.

Watch Cerrnobyl, that will make you think twice about nuclear fuel

It’s a drama, not a documentary. If you are serious about reducing carbon emissions, nuclear is the best way. France’s per capita carbon footprint is low, lower than the UK. This is due to their reliance on nuclear power, IIRC 70 percent of their energy is generated by nuclear power.

It works. I lived within 30km of a nuclear power plant in Japan (not outing myself, they are quite common, even as most were shut down after Fukushima) and did not feel unsafe.

When most were shut down after Fukushima, you can guess what happened next. Japan’s carbon emissions skyrocketed, because they cranked up the gas and coal furnaces.

Watch Cerrnobyl, that will make you think twice about nuclear fuel

It certainly didn't make me think nuclear fuel is bad. It's not, as pp pointed out.
What's bad is shit management.

I’m talking about central heating though, they just heat room by room, in my area, it was with gas-powered units

I suppose that would be more efficient than central heating, all other things being equal. We used to use kotatsu (that's a heated coffee table with a blanket to keep legs warm for other readers), gas heater and electric aircon / heater, but now we have underfloor heating, which keeps the house much warmer.

As I said, though, I was thinking more about the plastics. It feels useless to refuse a plastic bag, which will later line my waste paper basket, when 100,000 umbrella covers are going to be handed out that same day.

Watch Cerrnobyl, that will make you think twice about nuclear fuel

One thing about about Chernobyl is how nature recovered and animal life is thriving there.

It seems humans are worse for animal life than a nuclear disaster. Make of that what you will.

Catherine our current plan is London Strasbourg Budapest Sofia Istanbul by train and stopping on the way obviously. Interrail ticket is £250 each for a month under 12s free or much reduced. Our climate conscious 2 are well up for it!

Climate change is a serious issue. But the answer isn't going to come from taking us all back to the stone age. It's a fundamental characteristic of humanity that we move forwards, not backwards. Answers will come from technological advancement. The answers will be found by engineers and scientists. Yes, we all need to reduce waste amd make sensible choices. But overly simplistic preaching at people to simply "stop flying", "give up meat", "stop driving" etc isn't going to win anybody over.

Humans are by nature, incredibly selfish - we can all agree on that.

But the answer isn't going to come from taking us all back to the stone age. It's a fundamental characteristic of humanity that we move forwards, not backwards. Answers will come from technological advancement. The answers will be found by engineers and scientists.

I agree. But the idea that we [people with relatively comfortable living standards. Well, no. Everyone, unfortunately] won't need to make sacrifices is just as ridiculous a notion as wanting to go back to the stone age (imo).

There are some luxuries that may just need to go...

And short haul flying seems like it might be one of them.

My family is strewn all over Europe and taking the train is a pain in the arse but... Unless going by plane is actually necessary? Idk, I just can't justify it.

I must sound like a sanctimonious and joyless twat (which isn't my intention) but my laziness / me wanting fast and cheap travel just doesn't trump envoremental issues....

On the basis 99.9% of all energy the planet has ever received has come from either the nuclear reaction of the sun, or deep within our own planet, it's a little fucking late to start having doubts about nuclear power now.

The main problem with nuclear power is that all western economies cant' cope with the idea of free energy. So the propaganda blackops of the oil companies has worked it's magic.

Well, that's one problem. The other problem is the connection of nuclear power to nuclear weapons. Which meant that the technology chosen for nuclear power had to provide fuel for bombs.

If we hadn't wanted to stock up on nuclear warheads in the 50s and 60s, we would probably have used the Thorium fuel cycle (something the UK was a brief world leader in) which results in much less waste - and more manageable too.

India has been quietly investing in Thorium research.

www.bbc.com/future/story/20181016-why-india-wants-to-turn-its-beaches-into-nuclear-fuel

*environmental

Less driving would help combat obesity too.

How many more things will my generations and gen z have to forego because older gens didn't give a flying fuck? 😑
But we are the "selfish" ones🤷‍♀️

I hate 'the planet'. It's Earth.

How many more things will my generations and gen z have to forego because older gens didn't give a flying fuck?

Of course a reverse view is how many things can you enjoy that your ancestors would have - and did - die for ?

Surely the interest on the price of progress is compromise ?

Nuclear power isn’t a long term solution though I don’t think - the unstable elements we need for it aren’t infinite. I don’t know exactly how long they’d last if we got all our energy from nuclear but I think it’s under 100 years.

Not a reason not to do it, but we will still need to think about our lifestyles.

To think when I was a child (and I’m only in my 30s) the big concern was that fossil fuels would run out.

Nuclear power isn’t a long term solution though I don’t think - the unstable elements we need for it aren’t infinite. I don’t know exactly how long they’d last if we got all our energy from nuclear but I think it’s under 100 years.

You "think", or you have some actual scientific grounding in the subject ? If the latter, links please. If the former then how do you deal with people who do know ?

The wonderful thing about energy - if you do it right (and that's not going to happen for my generation, nor my childrens, but heigh ho) is that once you can tap into a good sustainable reliable source, you can work wonders. The biggest wonder being to get off this rock, and either bring resources back to us or start living elsewhere.

I'd happily take a one-way trip to Mars (I'm sure a few MNetters would wave me off ). Sadly although I could but a couple of liters of vodka today, and drink myself to a miserable death, volunteering for such a mission is somehow "unethical" .

In the meantime watch NASA for 2024. They haven't a cat in hells chance of making it, but space mining could become "a thing" ...

I think most who know quite a lot about this matter tend to think that nuclear power is one of the ways forward, and that the aversion to it is unreasoned.

Good for @Walkingthere what do you want a round of applause?

I think most who know quite a lot about this matter tend to think that nuclear power is one of the ways forward, and that the aversion to it is unreasoned.

More ill informed. There are good reasons to be wary of nuclear power - as there are to be wary of anything that can go "bang". But anyone who promotes windmills whilst opposing nuclear power needs to understand that their precious windmills - and solar panels - are nuclear powered anyway. And if it weren't for that sodding big nuclear reactor in the sky (not today, obviously ) then the oceans (a) wouldn't exist and even if they did (b) they'd be frozen solid. No tidal power either.

We had to fit nuclear batteries to the spacecraft we wanted to work for decades on end (pauses to salute Pioneer 10). For some reason the idea of fitting a windmill didn't get the gig.

No