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?

Flying only accounts for 2-3% of global warming. We have hardly any flights atm but it hadn’t made a great deal of difference to global warming

Tackle the bigger things like your purchases of irrelevant clothes/pictures/ornaments etc, look at turning your heating down, cut down on cooking or become vegan and enjoy your holidays

Travelling days aren’t numbered, and it won’t become socially unacceptable to fly.

(And even if it did, it wouldn’t stop me.)

I also dont want the over reliance on cars to return. It's been lovely without all that horrible traffic

Another aspect is the "airport experience". It's bad enough as it is having to go from one queue to another throughout the airport, check in, security, passport control, gates, etc etc. Looks like we'll now have to add in some kind of health screening, so that's yet another queue even if it's just a temperature check. Just how many hours in airports are people willing to suffer? Eg Manchester terminal 3 is already a hell hole due to being cramped, congested and slow - I really can't see how they could fit in another holding area for health checks. It's just going to make the whole flying experience more miserable than it already is. That alone will put people off.

I do hope that some poster's holidays on South Sea islands are not interrupted by psunamis, floods etc.

The population of these islands are upset because ,like the Venetians, they can actually SEE the result of all the flying, carbon heavy industry etc. etc. Our weather patterns are changing too has anyone noticed? We should ALL be changing our behaviours, in every way.

Covid itself loves the frequent flyers. Why did it spread so dramatically?

I couldn't care less about my carbon footprint and I like going on holiday so I'll continue to fly a couple of times a year. I also eat a lot of meat and drive a car. Individuals having a couple of holidays a year are not causing climate change

Can but hope. Any reduction in flights is a positive thing for the planet.

I'll be flying and I really couldn't give a flying fuck who doesnt like it.

Flying for hen/stag dos will hopefully become a thing of the past.

Just book your holiday and don’t worry about it.

Mankind does need to make changes to fix the planet we’ve broken, but they need to be massive, widespread and top down changes. We need the whole world on board to make any meaningful change - including the biggest climate change culprits such as USA (which frankly doesn’t likely atm) and also the rising economies such as China and India. India alone would need to INCREASE its carbon emissions for decades to lift its population out of poverty. It’s so much bigger than the Jones’s from Surrey going abroad once a year or someone taking a gap year.

We as indivuals can do our best to live as sustainably as possible but the climate change action needed is so tangled up with the economy, poverty, inequality and education worldwide that choices that are within your remit probably won’t make a scrap of difference.

Honestly I really don't think so. Whenever it comes up on MN posters are all over themselves stating how they won't change a thing and justifying their several flights per year.

They are surprisingly quiet about eating local and seasonal food or shopping in general

Are they?

Well, I’ve looked it up and it would take me approx 40 days on a ship if I wanted to get to the UK. Mind you, I think the carbon footprint from the ship would probably be worse than a plane. Fucked if I’m taking a couple of years by canoe. I’ll take the 23hr flight thanks.

The only thing that would change demand would be a price hike. I don’t know if that will happen, long term I’m not sure why it would.

Perhaps if businesses travel less now and ongoing and that impacts price.

Offsetting is just a way to avoid guilt. It doesn't work. Not flying works.

www.responsibletravel.com/copy/carbon-offsets

I can’t see me or anyone I know changing their flying habits.

Not going to happen. If there’s one thing most people have to look forward to in the year, it’s usually a holiday.

My family (parents, brothers, grandparents, etc.) live a 7.5 hour flight away. When I made the decision to move to the UK to be with DH, it was done with the thought that international travel could happen regularly (generally twice per year with DH and I doing one trip and my parents doing the other). If flying is no longer feasible, that is condemning international families to never seeing their loved ones again. Not everyone who flies does it for expensive holidays or pointless business travel.

@mascotte

Me neither!

There are plenty of places you can travel to by train.

Again, not for everyone. Can’t think of anywhere really that’s not an incredibly expensive raffle that would have you contemplating topping yourself (or drinking yourself to death) along the way.

So, I could go over to Perth, no idea why though (sorry to those from Perth). That’s over $2000 and over 3 days. Across desert. Just desert. Or $700 and 7hrs on a plane.

Or maybe be the big rock that sits in the middle of the country, in desert. That’s around $1700 and over 2 days straight by train or $700 and 5hrs by air. Then after looking at the rock, I would pay again to travel for another couple of days to get home. Or, maybe I could hire some dodgy tourist van and hope to make it home alive (Wolf Creek anyone!).

The reef is a winner though. The cost of training it and flying are virtually the same, approx $500. But 34hrs train vs 5hrs flight. Most people wouldn’t want several days of their annual leave taken up by the train trip there and back I’m guessing.

Yeah, no. Not everyone has plenty of places to travel by train. Or indeed plenty of places to travel.

There's been quite a few threads about this recently and it really devides people.

To be honest, living in the U.K. doesn't exactly give you the best quality of life. Work pressures, cost of living ( in some areas) lack of recreational time and you can't always count on the weather.

As family we really look forward to our holidays, and we have family overseas so for us it's more like a home from home.

My observation has been that the people that are opposed to flying are the ones that have been abroad once or twice and clearly have no interest in travelling or experiencing different cultures so it's not really a fair argument.

I have several cancelled flights, where I have received vouchers or refunds. I will be booking new flights for next year, perhaps to some different destinatuons

I'm supposed to be on holiday in UK now but it's been cancelled

In the news, the Greek government is already offering tourists discounts like stay x amount, get y days stay free (not going to Greece)

Will I be flying less next year - no
If anything, it's made me think that life is too short & I want to fly more, before it's too late

I sacrifice "stuff" & "lifestyle choices" that other people enjoy, so that I can travel

Secondly, lots of foreign people rely on income generated by tourists. You only have to look at how Egypt has suffered, due to decrease in tourism

The only thing that might change is testing & quarantine

People are giving the OP a hard time here. Fact is if people stopped going on holiday abroad it would harm a lot of countries whose economy relies on tourism to keep afloat.

Er, climate change was a thing before coronavirus

It was, and if you read any of the scientific literature about it we were very close to tipping the scales to the point of no return (and by that I mean within our own lifetime) whereby once that scale has tipped and carbon run off starts there will be absolutely no stopping it, no matter what pollution reduction measures are put in place. As tragic as this pandemic is, it couldn't have come at a better time in relation to literally saving the planet (i.e., the dramatic reduction in pollution from air/car travel etc which will continue for the foreseeable). In fact, the conspiracy theorist in me thinks.................................

I don’t understand why people think that flying for holidays is more acceptable than business travellers either.

Because to me travelling is an insight into different cultures and experiences (surely necessary with the Little Britain attitude that is so prevalent at the moment). You can’t have those experiences and broaden your mind without actually going to the place. Flying to a business meeting where you’re just going to go from airport to conference room back to airport - entirely unnecessary (as everyone is finding out).