To be pissed off at people who constantly say we need to fly less?

[lockdowncockdown]

I'm probably going to get flamed for this but here goes. Am I being unreasonable to be annoyed by the people who constantly say 'well, we need to fly less anyway'. Well, yes that's ok for you to say at 40/50 years old after you've spent the last 20 years flying all over the world and brandishing yourself as ' well travelled' and cultured. What about those of us in our early twenties like me who has been abroad four times in my whole life, not even to anywhere particularly exciting and I'm just about to finish university and was hoping to finally be able to travel a bit? It's ok to spout nonsense about flying less when you've been lucky and already had your experiences but I find it very hypocritical to want to deny others the same experiences that you were lucky enough to have.

Oh boo hoo.

"The older generation fucked up the planet, so why should I do anything to help fix it. It's not fair".

Get a grip. Seriously. Find other ways to travel.. travel Europe by train which is what most 'gap year kids' when I was at that age. Pay more for one return flight to SE Asia, and then travel by other means rather than flying between countries.

I'm finally at a point in my life, that for the FIRST time we can afford holidays abroad. I never had these as a kid. Finally we can afford to holiday as a family in interesting places abroad. But you know what? Life isn't perfect.. rather than moaning and bitching, I am wondering what we can do that will be better all round.

I think that one thing that will happen is that flying for business trips will reduce . One because of the cost and secondly modern technology means it won’t need to happen so much .

Also I would never lecture someone about flying personally , it will be the future cost that might curtail things as much as anything .

I think your getting your knickers in a twist over it. Flying less doesn't mean not flying at all. Some people do business flights just for a meeting or fly to places when they could just take a train.

You could do a trip somewhere and travel across the continent without necessarily needing to take a plane in between (great life experience).

All is not lost OP. I wouldn't worry too much.

Ps. Took so f*cking long to type this that what I've said has been mentioned several times over.

Another benefit of being younger is that there is far more awareness of mental health issues and support available than there was twenty or thirty years ago.

Opportunities for women have also improved massively.

Yabu
I'm in my 40's and haven't flown for over 16 years.

But what about trains? Flying isn’t the only way to travel. Yes your generation has it hard in relation to house prices and uni fees but each generation faces a different set of challenges. How you deal with them to build the life you want is up to you

I have to say...it is quite off that you’re trying to blame older generations, but want to do exactly the same to generations after you!! Also, those older generations didn’t know so much about how it was impacting the environment. We’re better informed now

I would like people to look at other "guilty parties" first.
The internet causes a huge amount of pollution.
"Cheap" anything, whether fashion or food is not environmentally friendly. What about having a slug at the advertising industry that trades on creating "wants" rather than needs, or the supermarket giants, who package anything and everything in swathes of plastic?
The (mainline) aviation industry has been trying, for years, if not decades, to make itself "slimline" in all sorts of ways. I am not sure who all these business travellers are, though. I used to fly perhaps twice a month from where I live to London for "meetings" (think UAT etc.). Today this would be done "online" (see above) but it wasn't possible in 1998/99.
I think one of the main problems is people's attitude. A lot of people want "something for nothing", to use the cliche, life isn't like that.

I get you op! sorry have not rtft but I see the 'never been abroad, don't see the point in going to other countries' brigade are out in force.

some of us have our family dotted around the world so its not just as simple as not travelling. my family live in different countries because that's where we could all get jobs (deeper issues here about our countries of origins' capacities' to provide jobs for their people), not just cause its so fun to be 'abroad' and far away from one another.

I see lots of people have also pointed out that highly frequent and frankly unnecessary business travel - most of which could be easily replaced with a zoom call - is the real culprit, alongside private jets as @zafferana rightly points out. sometimes I think that all of us mainly normal people (in terms of income) forget that the super rich are out there in their various gas guzzlers (jets, yachts, etc) without a care in the world while the rest of us shit fight about whether it is ethical or not to go on a short haul flight once or twice a year.

I think YABU. Yes, I'm much older than you are, but I've only ever flown once, and that was to a family funeral in the UK. My own DC have never set foot outside the UK. It's eminently survivable, much more so than the alternative you're clamouring for.

TBH, I can’t see the lockdown lasting for the next 50/60 years OP, so you’re going to have lots of opportunity to fly and travel in the future. Meanwhile you could say those people 50 plus might also feel the years are ticking by, and it means one or two years when they have to put travelling on hold. You’re being a bit of a drama llama.

YANBU. Nothing will stop me flying when airlines are back up and running.

@lockdowncockdown compare yourself to someone your age in a slum in Africa or India. You’ve had all sorts of luck and chances... Don’t focus on your negatives. You don’t know what’s going to be around the corner for you..

Flying is a luxury. I'd rather have a healthier planet.

About time for an aviation fuel tax. I know the EU are considering it and there doesn't seem to be a good reason for airlines to be exempt any more. Revenue would be an enormous help to the government and after all as road users we pay fuel tax of 20% so seems a bit unfair not to tax airlines! Whether that would reduce business travel or whether they would just add the extra cost to the end product, who knows but it might just tip the balance in favour of more video-conferencing. I worked for Ford Motor Company in the 80s and they were doing some video conferencing between the UK and Germany even back then but the bosses weren't in favour as flying to Germany for the day got them out of the office and a bit of pampering. Sad that nothing seemed to have changed in 40 years!

My SIL flies 2-3 times a month at least for business, seems such a waste of money and resources especially now with all the Zoom calls etc. She also like to gloat about her annual conferences in NYC or Mexico with hundreds of people being put up in 5 star luxury. Interestingly this is a travel company who are going to be very badly hit ad a result of corona.

I do think we need to cut down on flights a bit though, maybe everyone should be allowed 2 international flights a year or something?

There is a bit of a fallacy about older people flying here there and everywhere I think .I am in my 50s and have flown about a dozen times in my whole life! Not all of us can afford/want to fly 3 or 4 times a year you know! I think Air Travel will return ,but probably at an increase and short breaks to Europe may no longer be cost effective anyway. The way to look at it is if you have children yourself when you are older, will you still want them to have a world to live in? Just walks in the country with birds singing and wildlife to look at.This is under threat with such a lot of pollution from Air Travel particularly ,but also other modes of transport Cruise Ships and large volumes of road traffic!

I have only flown 4 times in my life and and am late 50s and I do think we need to fly less.

I just feel like my generation have got a bit of a shitty deal.

I know exactly what you mean

It looks as if flying will be a great deal more expensive in future, really it has been far too cheap. Airports are awful places to hang around in a flying is not that pleasant especially as people can be so rude.

I last went on a short flight a year ago as I had to sort something out, not keen to go again.

Hopefully all those ‘popular’ places will have fewer people so you can walk around, Rome, say without being shoulder to shoulder with others.

I see your point however you are citing 40/50 year olds as persons saying this , how about Greta Thunberg? Obviously she is being used by the media . I think you should be looking at the business travel area as opposed to the leisure area . A once a year holiday abroad is not going to tip the balance but air travel on private jets on a regular basis ,is.

I'm not just talking about because of the corona virus, I'm talking about those who say we need to fly less anyway because of climate change

Your generation has a far bigger stake in the future of the planet than mine. I’m frankly appalled you value it less than I do.

It is the inequality of flying that is the issue. If everyone was limited to taking one flight a year there would be much less of an issue. Flying for business also needs to be reduced substantially. Cruise ships are also highly polluting and need to be controlled unless they can switch over to cleaner fuels.

I do fel sorry for young people that have not had the opportunities to travel that older generations have had but young people on a gap year do have the benefit of time and could travel the world using more sustainable methods of travel.

How am I being entitled to want to have the same opportunities that the older generation have had? Essentially the younger generation are paying for a mess we haven't even caused and then are being preached to about needing to fly less to 'save the planet'

So basically you want to be able to knowingly ruin the planet because the generation before did mostly unknowingly?

Also to think your generation has it the worst is simply not true.

Your generation has the knowledge of the world at its finger tips. Now we know the problems we have the chance to change things. Direct your anger to something positive. Lobby the government to insist they take action to find clean energy sources. Get involved in environmental groups.