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.

laminateanecdotes

I “think” because I’m not a scientist and am reliant on reading what scientists say. I don’t understand your question about how I deal with people who do know.

I have been reading up on nuclear power because I watched Chernobyl and find it fascinating, and that’s where I came across the longevity issue.

The following link says this:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/phys.org/news/2011-05-nuclear-power-world-energy.amp

Uranium abundance: At the current rate of uranium consumption with conventional reactors, the world supply of viable uranium, which is the most common nuclear fuel, will last for 80 years. Scaling consumption up to 15 TW, the viable uranium supply will last for less than 5 years. (Viable uranium is the uranium that exists in a high enough ore concentration so that extracting the ore is economically justified.)

It also contains a number of other limiting factors for nuclear power as the solution.

However it seems some scientists think that we could develop recycling, or mine uranium from the sea:

www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-will-global-uranium-deposits-last/?redirect=1

But others think this is unsustainable (as you’ll see in the first link). I am not a scientist and don’t know what to make of it but it seems with current technology, the resources are very finite.

Incidentally as was clear from my post, I am all for nuclear power. It has drawbacks but is the obvious lesser of two evils as against an uninhabitable planet.

I actually came away from Chernobyl (deserving of the top spot on IMDB in my estimation) relatively reassured at the prospect of nuclear power.

It’s not great when things go wrong but the control rods are terribly useful aren’t they? I’m going to buy some to keep around my house.

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

The answer is never. Look at Venus - it has the climate we are projected to end up with if the warming becomes unstable and runs away. The climate will become stable again, but it will be fantastically hotter and not life sustaining. Think 450 degrees C and the same pressure as we have 1 km under water.....

This isn't about saving the planet! The planet will continue just fine as Venus has. This is about saving ourselves.

We must be careful even with things like solar panels and windmills.
Solar power plant in California basically burned birds alive when they flew over it from what I remember from news.

i find virtue-signalling on this thread patronizing beyond belief.

Actually I do a lot of things many people see as "sacrifice" - I wear my clothes not just for two seasons, but as long as they last or fit. I don't upgrade my phone as soon as a new model comes out (shit, I would love a phone to last for more than 2 years, or computers to last as long as a tv set), I shop second-hand for as much as possible. I don't have a high-flying career that would involve round-the-globe travel. What else... many things, because I just cannot afford them.
But demanding that I give up my less frequent that once a year holiday (nothing fancy, just a budget flight and an Airbnb stay), or that I shouldn't have pets... then I don't care about your children at all

But anyone who promotes windmills whilst opposing nuclear power needs to understand that their precious windmills - and solar panels - are nuclear powered anyway

Yes but one is powered through nuclear fission which results in a toxic waste problem and can (risk may be tiny but consequences huge) as you say go bang, and the other one from nuclear fusion which doesn't create dangerous unstable atoms and doesn't create gases like Co2.

Scientists would love to replicate the way the Sun makes energy. A safe, clean energy source without the resultant toxic waste.

The invention of a nuclear fusion reactor would pretty much solve our clean energy crisis.

I agree that science and technology will save us.

Solar power plant in California basically burned birds alive when they flew over it from what I remember from news
the same source of news as "windmills cause cancer"?

No hun. Soz.

Not a chance!
I work hard all year and I am very careful about doing things to help the environment but we love our summer holidays, it does us good as a family.

Ooooh that sounds great MsTSwift like a proper adventure. I must look into it and the travel fees sound very reasonable. Enjoy

@SooticaTheWitchesCat
Nobody is saying that your family should be denied a holiday, I agree with you that it's important.
But we should all consider alternatives to flying. A lot of Europe can be accessed fairly readily by train for example. I'm not ready to give up flying yet but we are definitely exploring alternatives. Just been on a UK holiday and considering Train to France next time.

This thread is so scary! So many people in denial or thinking what they do doesn't make a difference.

FWIW OP DH and I have just vowed to reduce our flights (we'll be training it to our next bunch of holidays in Europe), we've also got rid of one car, buy second hand, gave reduced meat consumption, attempt to buy local where possible and recycle.

Everyone needs to do something, anything. And not flying as much is really easy.

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!

sounds horrible. I wouldn't go if I had to do that. I wouldn't go to Turkey anyway.

of course Nuclear fission is the answer. Effectively limitless free power. It's a complete game changer.

@FishCanFly
Even went to google scholar for it just in case that x thousand google results were not right.

Unlike windmill thing, this is actually logical. The heat above large area of solar panels must be massive. This is from 2014, but reports continued even after.

scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Solar+panels+birds&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DGBtzJqnYcOYJ

People won't ever stop flying until some disaster befalls the world. And right now it seems to be ticking over just fine.
You go and live in the woods and be a caveman, the rest of us are trying to keep the economy going...
But really that is the point isn't it?
The economy...people's jobs, lively hoods.
Better hurry up with Brexit and destroy the EU and then go to war with Russia and China.
Then, when the bombs fall...
At least the planet will recover without humans.
So to answer the OP...
No!

How rich are you all that you can afford trains instead of flights? I can't 😂
Basically just getting to London station these trains go from would cost me more than the flight to visit my family😮

Flights always cost more than they seem to - surcharges on baggae etc, also add in travel to and from airport, parking, food while waiting for your flight... .

Solar power plant in California basically burned birds alive when they flew over it from what I remember from news

Yup. Windmills are also are horrible for predator bird species, and bat populations are getting decimated by them as well. I think when people read about bird strikes on these things, they think about crows and sparrows, not about endangered predator species like eagles and raptors.

Here’s a fair-minded review: blog.nature.org/science/2014/05/28/wind-turbines-bird-mortality-bats-science-impacts/

@ADarkandStormyKnight I travel with hand lagguage and it costs me £1.80 to get to it. I am also a master of last minute😁 Worked out that with just hand lagguage I really don't need to be there hour and half earlier. It takes me about 4. 5 hours door to door. With bus ticket in there as well my one way usually works out at about £25 because I buy in advance and on sales. Only this time it's £43 one way because I need a suitcase. Again. Includes transport to the airport.
Gosh I remember friend flying to Poland for a pound about 8 years ago.

Gosh I remember friend flying to Poland for a pound about 8 years ago. Yes - but this doesn't reflect the true cost! If flights were properly costed as part of an environmental policy this wouldn't happen.

@MangoFeverDream that's a very interesting article!

It's sad that there is basically no energy supply option without any harm.

Maybe we should all have batteries installed at home which would recharge by stationary bike😁
Only fridges would run on normal energy. For everything else we would work out and it would be stored in that battery with an indicator of how much power you have left so you don't need to wake up at 2am because heating run out of power😁
We would all be fit AF (I certainly need it) so less strain on NHS and less damage to environment.
Obviously people with disabilities and ilnesses would still be allowed to use normal power!
Obviously this is lighthearted idea.

@Oneminuteandthenallgone, words are good, but it doesn't stop the royal family having children and flying everywhere, does it?

Or is it one rule for them and another for us plebs?

NewarkShark

All very well, but I wasn't walking about Uranium, but Thorium. Completely different fuel cycle - with much more fuel to start with.

If it wasn't for the 1950s and 60s fad for nuclear weapons, the Uranium fuel cycle would have been dumped after the initial Oak Ridge experiments (which used fuel made in Britain )