@CatherineOfAragonsPomegranate said:
We live in a 2 tier world as it is. There is a problem, but rather than banning and seeking to restrict the rights of others (because it cannot apply to us retrospectively so we're comfortable with that) we need to find alternative solutions.
Applause to that comment.
I'm not in disagreement, one iota, that immediate, serious action is needed to preserve and protect this planet. What it's difficult to fathom is why the concept of 'alternative solutions' is so offensive to those who have decided that others' pleasures should be banned outright, toute suite, if these go against their particular principles. It's one of the reasons the virtue spiral has become such a laughing stock, and as a result, fewer people are willing to take seriously an issue that is actually extremely urgent and serious.
There needs to be a broad-scale, global, change in attitudes about the way we do business and the way we manufacture products which might ease our convenience but are destroying our surroundings. Sustainability is already big business, and it's growing. There are ways to make this planet more sustainable without shrieking 'ban it!' or 'stop travelling!' about anything that offends XR principles, however right they may be.
If people pontificate from privileged positions about how everyone else should sacrifice their pleasures in their travel, give up essential travel for work, get rid of their wood burners and hot tubs etc, they will likely will have the opposite effect to the one intended. That's especially true seeing that the lesser privileged are so often the ones expected to make the sacrifices.
A good many of the solutions are already out there and what's now urgently needed is serious global investment and a commitment to making them work. Preaching at end-users for their doubtless modest holiday habits is likely to achieve sweet FA, other than to get their backs up.
And a fat lot of good that will do.