To ask you to swerve vacations abroad on airplanes

[Happyone99]

Inspired by https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5433252-to-ask-you-to-swerve-shein-temu?page=24

As mentioned above, I personally don’t use Shein or Temu because they ARE terrible. However, why only change bad things lower income people happen to be involved with, rather than starting with things higher income people are involved with

Slave labour and poor working conditions are indeed terrible. So is the climate crisis, exacerbated by rich people flying on airplanes for vacations, and poor people in low-lying countries like Bangladesh suffer worst environmental consequences

Who are responsible for the most emissions and who are suffering the most?

Looking forward it seems glaringly obvious to me that only innovation is going to get us out of this climate change hole - the Kristin @ Triggernometry did a great talk about this at a debate at Oxford a couple of years ago:

Even if we in Britain stop all our flying, the growing middle classes in China and Latin America aren't going to do the same. Just when travel becomes a possibility for millions of people they aren't going to stay at home to make you or anyone else feel better.

My 2p worth - all these servers using masses of electricty & generating oodles of heat should be developed alongside industries that need the heat. So for example, lets have server banks next to airport runways that need to be ice free in winter & swimming pools that need heating year round.

We need clever people doing joined up thinking, and perhaps govt legistation and encouragement.

We aren't going to victimise our way out of this mess, we must innovate & colloborate.

We get to go abroad at the most once a year and both work really hard in difficult jobs to for holidays so it’s a no from
me. And no I don’t want to holiday in the UK instead.

We do do the parts we can for the environment - same as everyone else.

Sure we could do more and some do more than others but I’d bet there are things the OP does that other people don’t that harms
the environment.

None of us are perfect.

Other people will suffer no matter how many flights I take. Some people’s suffering will be eased by my travel through their employment and my spending in their area. I also fly to do voluntary work overseas.

I’ve accepted the planet is truly fucked. Humans I genuinely believe will become extinct through warfare, greed or viruses/disease. The world has irrevocably changed and the biggest polluters (China, USA and Europe) will never stop because people want and are used to things that require massive resources - the amount of water needed to support AI is just one example. As is fast fashion, wanting avocados and aubergines all year round etc etc.

We cannot go back in time to when people were happy with what they could get locally. And the future looks bleak.

Travelling is one of my greatest pleasures and I’m going to keep doing it for as long as I can.

Life's short, you can stay home flagellating yourself if you want, im off to catch some rays 😎

Yanbu to ask OP. Yes frequent flyers are offenders but if everyone halved their plane travel it would of course make a difference.

We don't NEVER fly but we try to do it less than once a year. I think we've flown as a family something like 6 times in 14 years.

People are right to bring up fashion. Emissions from the clothing industry are more than those from international aviation and shipping combined. It's incredibly polluting on top of this (toxic dyes etc going into water, micro plastics from washing man made fibres) and is responsible for 20% of water waste.

If you don't want to give up flying but want to reduce your footprint, I would propose giving up buying new clothes for a year.

lots of racism and ignorance about china on the shein/temu thread. lots of commenters talk about it as though it's common knowledge that china is just a black hole country full of evil people waiting to enslave each other

Agreed! Was driving me crazy too

And all the queuing at various check points

Whatever happened to him?

I am planning to visit relatives in Australia and New Zealand, maybe in the next year or so.

Pray tell - how would you propose I do this without flying?

Genuinely interested to see what you say.

I think he retired

How was the ferry and train powered? How did you get about once you reached your destination? Do you have gas central heating? What about the minerals mined to produce your smart phone?

I’ve said before that everyone should get a CO2 emissions bank that they are allowed to use on whatever they choose. That would sort out the ‘I can fly because i’m veggie’ or ‘I can order shite from Temu because I dont fly’
Have a kid? That’s a massive chunk of your bank gone every year and you might have to never use the tumble dryer again and only use public transport so you don’t exceed your bank
Do a bunch of flying? Okay but you aren’t buying anything from Temu… bank has dwindled.
Want to run several massive cars? Fine but you are going to have to be veggie.

I have friends with 3 kids and two massive cars who judge me for not using a reusable cup at the coffee shop and who never use kitchen paper towels and tell the world about it but buy piles of shite for their kids at Xmas and have washing machines and dryer running non stop. That’s just virtue signalling. Especially as I don’t have kids, don’t eat meat, run an EV only and use only renewable sources of energy and we are connected to tank water only. So yes I continue to fly as my impact is so small day to day.

I think you're bonkers for wanting to live, breed and die all on one island - without wanting to explore this great big wide world even a tiny bit.

I voted YABU entirely because it is 'HOLIDAYS' and either 'AIRCRAFT' or AEROPLANES' not the yucky 'vacations' and 'airplanes'.

Aside from that, I agree that unnecessary air travel should be reduced considerably, and the planet would be a far nicer place without millions of tourists destroying the very places they want to visit so much. I also include cruise ships as habitat destroyers; and they should absolutely not be allowed anywhere near places like the Antarctic, the Galapagos Islands, tropical islands with vulnerable coral reefs, or indeed anywhere else where the ecosystems are interfered with by tourists and their chosen methods of transport.

It’s not within our power OP and won’t make a difference

it’s the elites and private jets that can make the difference

FWIW Airplane/Airplanes is accepted useage in some places, especially in the US, even in technical documentation

Plane or/planes...OTOH tends to grind some gears

I offset my carbon footprint by not having a dog or a car. The thing is it is really easy to give up stuff you don't find necessary yourself. I would never ask other people to get rid of their dogs or their cars.

Yes they absolutely could. They could charge high tariffs for imported clothes to make them cost a similar price to UK produced clothes.

Unfortunately politicians tend to only consider each term and what's popular with the voters, which is why our green policies are in a poor state. No-one wants to raise taxation on low value goods which will directly impact the poorest households.

Agree. Strange take.

YABU to call holidays vacations.

Yes, you may ask.

People have many many reasons for needing to fly. I fly long haul to see my family - I was separated from them when I was a baby and it took me 50 years to find my mum again, so we're making up for lost time and I try to visit them once or twice a year.

As previous posters have mentioned, flying makes up for only a tiny percentage of emissions (less than 5% is the figure given).

As I do fly a lot, I make every effort not to overconsume otherwise. I never buy from Shein or Temu or other nasties, don't eat fast or UHP food, buy local, use a hot water bottle or cuddle the cat rather than whacking on the heating, and walk whenever I can. I completely agree that meetings which can be done over the internet rather than flying to meet face to face should be the norm.

Same. Except I’m larger (height and weight) than the average.

This is complete rubbish. There obviously is - I saw desertification with my own eyes in North Africa - but one return flight a year by your average person is definitely not the problem. Neither is a few fast fashion purchases, to be fair.

Easy to get off this islsnd and explore without planes