To think soon it won’t be socially acceptable to fly

[Pigletspal]

I’m sad because I’ve been saving up for 6 years to go on holiday. I want to go to South America and Southeast Asia next year. I’ve also just got a job with a decent wage and I have been looking forward to much to making holidays a regular thing.

But they’re about to get more expensive aren’t they?

And suddenly I feel guilty about wanting to fly. One of my friends has already said that she will be going on “one last” foreign holiday and then stopping due to climate change.

And I really want to save the planet too. I’m just sad that it’s all going this way.
Am I overreacting or shall I get used to the idea my travelling days are numbered?

I think we’ll have to cut down in it. Hopefully a lot of business flying will cut down as people have realised they can do most things by video.

I think it’s hard on younger people / those who haven’t had the money or freedom to travel until now to be told that it’s all over by those who perhaps have had a fair crack already.

But yes we’ll have to cut down.

@ppeatfruit you directly asked why I don’t travel by train and you said that people living in the places I travel to probably don’t want me or other tourists there ruining things....then you said about tourists in Prague linking to your point about them not wanting tourists! 😂

Train travel is great for people who are very time-rich, eg students, retirees and teachers.

For the rest of us, every single day of our meagre annual leave allowance is precious and spending four days sitting on trains travelling to & from the Med isn’t a realistic option.

ppeatfruit You need to take a chill pill. Being all het up and angry over what other people do is just going to make you miserable and bitter.

It’s simple: people just don’t care. Me included. I don’t see any reason why I should have to stop flying and I won’t do, and neither will the vast majority of the planet. You just need to accept it because it won’t change.

I do think flying is becoming less socially acceptable. I hope we won’t have to give it up completely, but I’ve cut mine down considerably. I haven’t flown for four years and my last holiday (last year) was in the UK. I’d like to take DD abroad, but I’m looking at going by train. This website is excellent www.seat61.com/.

We’d both like to see Paris and Switzerland. We’ll go to Paris on the Eurostar, even though we don’t live near London. I’ve have liked to go to Switzerland by taking an overnight train through France, but it seems that’s no longer an option on that route. It’ll be a very long journey for a young child if she can’t sleep through most of it.

So, if other people are going to continue flying dozens of times a year, and aren’t willing to cut down at all, I might as well say “fuck that!” and book a return flight to Geneva.

Also the production of the fresh vegan foods is a lot kinder (to the environment and the animals) than industrial animal farming. Ridiculous generalisation alert. I love the insert of 'fresh' and 'industrial'

Humans deserve to die out, don’t they?

We’re not even prepared to cut down on luxuries now in order to give the next generation a future. We pretend that putting the recycling bin out once a week justifies a flight to Thailand.

We can’t think ahead and we can’t adapt to change. So, as a species, we’re doomed.

My family lives abroad so I will continue to go to see them, I don't care what others think about that. I have already changed my travelling habits though because of climate change, less hols, electric car which we use as little as possible, gone veggie, didn't have another kid.

Cattenburg You're right.

It's a shame but you're right. There'll be another disease along too, it may wipe us out sooner than the Arctic melts. No one cares so one way or another . We're going down the swanee.

Why the fuck do people care what anyone else thinks though - just do what you want - socially acceptable or not 🙄 do you really care if someone says something about you taking a holiday behind your back! ? Or what strangers on the internet have to say

That would be tragic for so many communities who rely on tourism! And protected areas as well that are only surviving thanks to the influx of foreign visitors.. It is possible to travel in an ethical and environmentally conscious way, be it carbon offsetting or choosing operators with good sustainability programs. Covid helped to weed out less fuel efficient aircraft so air travel got greener already. I’m surprised by the number of people who think they will save the planet by not flying whilst not giving a second thought to any other area of their lives

I’m surprised by the number of people who think they will save the planet by not flying whilst not giving a second thought to any other area of their lives
Quite.
@ppeatfruit, I assume you’re absolutely good as gold environmentally in every single sense? Since you’re so willing to have a go about other people, making assumptions and putting on your tinfoil hat....I assume you don’t drive? You don’t buy things that come from abroad? You don’t eat meat?

I’m surprised by the number of people who think they will save the planet by not flying whilst not giving a second thought to any other area of their lives

For me I don’t believe not flying makes any real difference as the lock down is proving.
I don’t eat meat, and I don’t really buy anything unnecessary from abroad or at home and I could fit my clothes and shoes into a small back pack.

For me I prefer to go away than spend money on things that you then spend over a lifetime weeks of your life polishing or washing or cleaning that don’t really serve any purpose

@adellaranger

So unless people are willing to change everything they do to limit their impact on the environment, they shouldn't change anything they do? That is a really, really daft line to take.

Oops tagged the wrong person. @Pelleas not @ppeatfruit

@Iwalkinmyclothing no I agree with you but it seemed to be the viewpoint of another poster so I was challenging that. @Pelleas responded to another poster who said she did care about the environment and made some changes but wouldn’t change her flying habits. Then palleas said something like ‘you might as well admit you don’t care’ which was why I said what I said like people in glass houses and all that

I think not flying isn’t changing anything so it comes across as virtue signalling.

It is like saying how green you are that you always use your recycled carrier bags but are then filling them with meat and out of season strawberries and fruit and a nice ornament that you found in the Home aisle of the supermarket

My family are 95% vegan and 5% vegetarian (3 of the 4 of us eat eggs). We do one big international holiday a year. We won’t be stopping. I cannot wait for foreign holiday destinations to open back up again. Apparently the Greeks are begging foreign holiday makers to return.

If it’s a choice between paying double for flights to receive guaranteed sun and a warm welcome or going to a rainy UK destination full of pitchfork wielding locals screaming we’re not welcome, I’d pay the double fare.

I usually find it isn’t that much difference in price and the guaranteed sun is the winner.

I have been to Cornwall 3 times and 3 times it has poured down every day

I don't think this is the case. People are desperate to go away, and many people I know, including myself, have said they want to go away more than they did before. Mainly because we don't know if this will happen again and we don't know what the future holds so I want to make the most of every day and try to do everything on my bucket list.
If the travel companies do put their prices up then they are fools

Oh my god, this is not a thing . You are vegetarian..My family are 95% vegan and 5% vegetarian (3 of the 4 of us eat eggs

Also the production of the fresh vegan foods is a lot kinder (to the environment and the animals) than industrial animal farming. Ridiculous generalisation alert. I love the insert of 'fresh' and 'industrial'

The detail stacks up too, however. Avocados are one of the most environmentally unfriendly vegan foods and they’re still much better than beef.

A pack of 2 avocados has an emissions footprint of 846.36g CO2. Here are some non-vegan comparisons:

Salmon - 11.9kg CO2 per kilo

Beef - 27kg CO2 per kilo

Lamb - 39.2kg CO2 per kilo (46x more than the twin pack of avocados)

This is true regardless of whether your meat is local, grass fed, organic etc - the very fact of it being from ruminant animals is what makes it so environmentally damaging: ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local

Here’s a good link for calculating the environmental impact of your diet: www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/science-environment-46459714

According to this site, a Boeing 737-400 (typically used for short international flights) emits 90kg CO2 per person per hour. That means for my annual return flight to Bergerac, I’m responsible for 720kg CO2. That’s the equivalent of 18kg of lamb per year, or 34g per week. The U.K. eats an average of 226g meat per day - or 1.5Kg per week.

Ok, not all of that 1.5kg will be beef and lamb (the worst offenders), but it’s still easy to see from the maths just how significant an impact meat consumption has on the environment.

Sorry, forgot to link to the site with airline emission information - www.carbonindependent.org/22.html

@Fluffybutter yes it is a thing - one of us is completely vegan, no dairy at all and three of us eat one egg each in the morning which means the vast majority of our meals are vegan. I never said we were completely vegan, I said 95% (for 3 of us and 100% for one).

If 3 of us ate meat for 95% of our meals apart from one apple each a day and one of us only ate meat, it would be fair to call us majority carnivores. The vast majority of our diet is vegan. I’m not getting into any debates with any ideological vegan purists.

I assume you don’t drive

I don't drive.

You don’t buy things that come from abroad?

No - I very rarely buy anything new.

You don’t eat meat?

Occasionally.