AIBU to ask how many of you are seriously revising whether (or how often) you fly again?

[Thelowquietsea]

We don't fly often (one flight a year tops, mostly to Europe) but reducing my air travel is one of the few differences I can make towards climate change.

And yet, I'm celebrating a big birthday this year. I had an idea to take myself to a retreat quite far away, and now it's 'booking' time, I can't quite bring myself to do it. Especially in light of Australia's tragedy. I'm really torn.

How many of you are making serious sacrifices in this area?

So, first set of numbers, from WHO, 2014:

WHO releases a quantitative assessment of the health impacts of climate change. This constitutes an update and a further development of the assessment that was first published by WHO for the year 2000, now with a wider range of health impacts, and projections for future years.

The assessment takes into account a subset of the possible health impacts, and assumes continued economic growth and health progress. Even under these conditions, it concludes that climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year between 2030 and 2050; 38 000 due to heat exposure in elderly people, 48 000 due to diarrhoea, 60 000 due to malaria, and 95 000 due to childhood undernutrition. Results indicate that the burden of disease from climate change in the future will continue to fall mainly on children in developing countries, but that other population groups will be increasingly affected.

www.who.int/globalchange/publications/quantitative-risk-assessment/en/

Data may have varied since 2014, and I'll see if I can find what global temperature rise this is based on. Will carry on and post other data as I find it.

Nope - in fact we are looking at booking a second holiday this year as well as the one we already have booked.

I might look in to offsetting it this year though x

The above numbers are now thought to be conservative, just looking for the update for those after source data.

Used to fly once a year and want to give up completely. Looking into train to Europe to visit relatives. Shocked how many people are saying they won’t be making any changes. Wake up people!!

I don't have alot of choice. My parents live in Southern Spain. I am lucky if I can see either of my parents once a year as are my kids.

I do my best to live sustainably and make environmentally friendly choices as much as I can, including using a green energy provider, using green cleaning products, recyclable toilet roll and eat less meat and sustainably sourced products. Plus we are a one car family and I use public transport or walk. I try to do what I can.

I might look in to offsetting it this year though

Whatever scheme you half-heartedly look into won’t be able to unburn the fuel.

At nearly 86 i do two return long haul flights a year. I go to the Caribbean for the winter months to stay with my son. I do not drive and use public transport at home and i will not be cutting out my flights at all.

I can’t see how people can say ‘until xxx do this then my flights don’t affect anything’. Every action has a reaction. The idea of flying somewhere short-haul when trains are available just doesn’t sit right with me. We make the journey part of the holiday and the kids love it. But flights shouldn’t be so cheap - £30 to fly to Spain is just ridiculous. Bump up prices for flights and lower train fares and they’ll instantly be a shift in attitude

Haven't RTFT...

Having kids is worse than flying, isn't it? Bit late to do anything about that! We rarely fly - think about 4 return flights since D1 was born, she'll be 18 this year. So I'm not going to feel guilty about 1 return flight coming up this year. Also use public transport for work so don't use the car very much - we do live in a city which makes it easier.

Yes definitely. I don’t like air travel much any more, I find it claustrophobic. I’ve travelled a lot over the decades and don’t feel a compelling need to do long distance travel. There are so many gorgeous places one can visit through train journeys.

No I’m not going to stop flying, we work hard and holidays are our treat as a family. We probably fly twice maybe 3 times a year. We have along haul flight booked for July and will probably go somewhere at Easter as well.

Nope.. no other way for us tho getting to airport is a nightmare, daughter gets travel sick on coaches and the trains need fresh air, but again, quickest way to get to airport and I cant drive, dont know any other way than to get seasick

Also I’m not holidaying in this country, we went to Cornwall last year to see friends and the weather was shit 4 out of the 7 days.

There are several charities that will plant trees in various places (some for under a tenner). It’s not perfect, but buying a tree to be planted could help a little bit to combat the carbon footprint of flying.

I hate flying now - so cramped and stressful and uncomfortable - so would rather get Eurostar or the ferry and go somewhere in France or Spain. I love it! You really 'feel' the distance, whereas flying always feels a bit surreal. My DH is from 'down under' so we do have to fly to meet in laws every 3 years or so, but in general I'm happy to avoid flying.

We've cut down our flying, because we are not visiting countries which have poor human rights any more, and also getting a bit old for it. Went by ferry to France last year (Brittany Ferries) and it was a surprisingly pleasant experience. Used Eurostar as well, so might consider that again.

(Following up on my last post, I don’t drive, very rarely fly, so i’m not saying planting a handful of trees and just go for it! I mean if you have to male a journey for whatever reason it’s probably better to at least try to compensate a little than not at all).

And this is why islands are being lost to the Pacific Ocean and people will run out of living space everywhere in the world. So that rich westerners can carry on fooling themselves and having their treats, "because someone else should sort it out". I've been on planes twice in my life.

We’re in a position where we maybe fly a few times a year as a family (and my husband more frequently for work) and like you I’m feeling conflicted. I want to show my children the places I love elsewhere in the world but am very conscious that this is not helping climate change. So I am torn. Apparently cruises are equally as bad as flying (I’m told, haven’t researched) so maybe trains to Europe in future? 😢

Right, so those interested, the possible 2019 update on the WHO report above is more of a review of action being taken by governments, it's quite interesting actually. Might be a good read for those saying governments should be doing more (I agree, they should, ours definitely should).

www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2019/climate-change-health-well-environment-emergency

apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/329972/WHO-CED-PHE-EPE-19.11-eng.pdf?ua=1

Off to see fall down a rabbit hole after a West Africa report and then WHO 2014 data.

Went by ferry to France last year (Brittany Ferries) and it was a surprisingly pleasant experience. Used Eurostar as well, so might consider that again

Yes ferries and Eurostar are ok when they work. However, I do wonder how eco-friendly ferries really are. When I was in Jersey last year we could see the St Malo ferry leaving each evening and it was chucking out brown fumes, not nice at all. I realise it's not at the section of the atmosphere where the impact is most damaging but it's still not great.

I can imagine cruises are as bad as flying - again, perhaps not in terms of the impact to the most vulnerable part of the atmosphere, but diesel fumes/pollution and taking too many people to vulnerable places like Alaska and Antarctica.

We have flown twice in 8 years. Not flying this year but may do next year. Certainly t

supporting nuclear is the way to go, plenty of carbon neutral energy without having to lower our living standards

I agree it should definitely be carefully considered. It's not safe when things go wrong but they generally only go wrong when shortcuts are taken.

For environmental reasons we have taken one short haul flight in 6 years. Prior to that I flew around 4 times per year.

"We work hard and holidays are our treat" - find a new treat - the people who will die and be displaced first from climate change worked hard too, and weren't enjoying long haul holidays as a treat. I used to love overseas travel, but regular flights don't sit well with me knowing what is happening.

For Europe we take Eurostar, which is fantastic. Nuclear powered in the French segment.

Nope.
Climate change has been happening since the dawn of time but am I convinced the tiny number of ppm of CO2 created by man is hurrying it along. No. Lots of weather scientists don’t either (interested you learn more - Judith Curry is one of the world’s most esteemed climatologists and disagrees it’s a thing).

If you’re that worried about climate change stop driving, turn down the heating and put on an extra jumper, don’t buy anything in packaging etc etc and when you fly go to somewhere like here and ‘buy your way to carbon neutrality’ www.co2nsensus.com/carbon-offset-calculator?