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?

What i do is a drop in the ocean. Im not a jet setter, i wish! Theres no point in people changing its the big companies ans governments.

We don’t fly every year for recreation. I can’t imagine not taking the rare trips we do. There is something to be said for getting to see the world.

I live in Perth. If I didn’t fly I would literally never leave the state. It’s just not feasible to go anywhere outside of WA by car, especially with kids. The thought of spending a week driving makes me (not envy).

I don’t fly all that often. Twice last year, once in 2017, and before that twice in 2011. I enjoy travelling, it makes me really happy and adds value to my life. I wouldn’t give it up voluntarily tbh.

I have made the decision not to fly again unless genuine emergency (seriously ill family member abroad for example). Enjoying UK holidays while DS is young and soon will start going on Eurostar.

You may as well OP, as this thread demonstrates most people aren't willing to reduce the amount that they fly.

You can pay to offset your carbon emissions from flying.

I don't give it a second thought. Mostly just trying to find the cheapest price.

Just counted I’ve 14 flights in mind for this year ... does anyone know where to offset them ?

I love travelling , it’s one of the only things I love doing in this life .. so I won’t give up when there are things that damage more this world

I fly whenever I choose because I don't have kids and therefore I save 80tonnes of carbon entering the environment every year.

A transat flight adds 1tonne of carbon to the atmosphere so a drop in the ocean compared to people who spaff out kids Willy Nilly then pontificate about me taking a fucking flight.

THE most polluting activity is relating to transport, much more than eating meat. Fine, fly if you want to, but don't think that just by being vegan (which you may also be contributing to carbon by eating food which is flown in or shipped in) you are offsetting your carbon footprint.

Just own the fact that you are unwilling to give up the most damaging thing you are doing to the environment.

AN fuck off about the kids thing - the whole point of wanting to blunt environmental change is to preserve the human race - kind of the point of having kids.

The cheek at being on MUMSnet and then having a pop at parents.

THe key problem is that flights are far too cheap. To really make an impact, flights really need to be much, much more expensive. Meat is also too cheap as is clothing.

No kids, don’t drive, veggie and I put out one small bag of rubbish per month, so I’m going to keep taking one short haul flight per year & offsetting it.

No. The whole point is to preserve the planet. NOT humans. There are far far too many of us.

BTw those saying that you’re giving up on flights and catching trains instead quick search in google
“ Search Results
Featured snippet from the web
While trains are more energy efficient than automobiles, they do have their own effects on the environment, including producing nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide, and particulate matter that can contribute to air pollution and negative health effects.”

So basically from now on everyone should give up on trains/ cars / planes and walk to work/places and do nothing else in life.

Or we can “lecture” less what others are doing to help the world and acknowledge that those steps might not be the same ones as ours yet they’re both helping

NO. The planet will survive us - we are changing the planet, but the planet is always changing.

You really don't get the point, do you!

Easy to say that you'll give up flying when you live in a place which is near to a lot of other countries. Not so easy when you live far away and every trip has to be either flying or not going.

This exactly.

I live in Perth. If I didn’t fly I would literally never leave the state. It’s just not feasible to go anywhere outside of WA by car, especially with kids. The thought of spending a week driving makes me envy (not envy)

We wanna go to wa but will fly, no way do we wanna drive the nullabor and that's just from sa.
DP cousin did to sa and back last year, we met them in ceduna and turned down an offer to follow them back lol

The whole 'I dont have kids so it's ok to x,y,z' argument is disingenuous.
You live in a society. You need kids. Sure, we don't need a growing population but if everyone in the UK stopped having kids or had super low fertility, this would have a huge - and most negative- impact. You need younger generations in a society. Filling that gap through migration brings all its attendant problems. So people having no kids (at the society level) are benefitting from those who do have kids and need to suck up the ensuing emissions involved with having a new generation to take care of them (and others) and pay pensions and taxes.

I've never flown and have no intention of doing so in the immediate future, if at all.

The planet will survive us - we are changing the planet, but the planet is always changing.

Not this fast, this is actually lining up to be extinction rates of fast, which plants, animals and us won't be able to react to quick enough. Yes some things will survive, probably including humans, but it's likely that we will see species extinction way a level we haven't before, and very unpleasant conditions that will significantly affect populations.

Not us. DHs father lives a flight away and is very elderly.and I'll. He seems to be deteriorating fast so DH plans to visit once a month for a while ( usually goes 3-4 times a year) . He can get there by ferry and train and does quite often as he hates flying but he won't be doing the monthly visits that way as he just can't fit in a visit over a normal weekend and also spend any time with his dad . So unfortunately, DH will be flying quite a bit more than usual for a while and he loathes flying and would much rather not do it. So I am afraid my answer to the op is no . Then again we don't go on holiday abroad very often at all . Most of.out holidays in the past have been in the UK. I do however have a family in Europe so do visit them every couple of years ( I don't call that a holiday) and am.planning.to visit friends in NZ in the next couple of years ( for the first time.in 20 years since friend moved there)

You know the planes do still fly if you don't buy a ticket right?

Yup. I’ll buy up that seat thx

I haven't flown for a couple of years but mainly because it's so boring and I hate all the airport faff that it ruins my holiday. Would rather holiday in the uk and avoid all that.