It’s long been a mantra among green-minded folk that greatly reducing – or even cutting out altogether – flights is an important step towards leading a carbon-lite lifestyle.
Given that I’m not an enviroloon, I have never considered it. I tend to avoid flying because of the absurd and paranoid security theatre, but that is another matter entirely. If flying is the best way to get to my destination, then I will fly and the watermelons can go fuck themselves.
Anyway, it does tend to look as if my carefree attitude might be justified.
The existence of the EU ETS has led Dr Grischa Perino, a senior lecturer in economics at the University of East Anglia’s Centre for Behavioural and Experiment Social Science, to publish a “discussion paper” (pdf) this week arguing that green consumers who voluntarily choose not to take a flight within the EU for environmental reasons will, in fact, have “no impact on total emissions”.
Ooops! You need a heart of stone not to chuckle…
The article goes on to rubbish this as academic rather than practical and they may be right. But frankly, I have no plans whatsoever to curb my lifestyle to fit in with the green zealots’ preferred agenda. That means that I will fly when I want to, will continue to eat red meat and live my life as I see fit. If the sanctimonious, right-on, purse-lipped puritans want to live a backward, agrarian lifestyle grubbing around in the dirt subsistence farming, then they may do so with my blessing. I have no plans to follow their lead. Except, of course, they ain’t leading, are they?
FLying short distances, especially if there is a good fast train servie, is potty anyway.
It depends on the journey. I can take the train to Edinburgh or I could fly. The decision will be based upon cost and time – especially if I place a high value on the time.
Last year, when faced with this decision, I conducted the interview via Skype.
XX I have no plans whatsoever to curb my lifestyle to fit in with the green zealots’ preferred agenda. XX
Same here. But I DO go overboard to defeat the bastards.
“Energy saving light bulbs?” GREAT!!!
That means I can leave them on 24/7, and my electric bill remains unchanged!
I avoid flying at all costs these days. After the initial excitement of flying as a youngster, when it was still a big adventure and all seemed rather “jet set,” (yes, I’m that old!), I gradually found that it became less and less enjoyable as an experience until eventually it became such a chore that no destination, no matter how wonderful, was really ever worth it – because having flown to that lovely sun-kissed beach, or that fascinating, historical country – you then had to ruin the holiday by flying miserably back again. Queuing up just to dump your luggage, hanging around an uninspiring airport for hours, treated like a would-be terrorist no matter how innocent your intentions, then sitting in a cramped seat with the back of the seat in front of you virtually touching your nose, surrounded by screaming children, unable to sleep, bored witless, and manouevring yourself over strangers to wait in a queue to use a usually urine-splattered toilet was never going to end any holiday on a high note. Then they all went and banned smoking – often way before the smoking ban – and the one, single consolatory factor available to me was gone. As a result, I haven’t flown anywhere in years, despite many opportunities, and I haven’t missed it one little bit. It’s been irritating to feel that I’ve been unintentionally assisting the Green agenda, but if, as it now seems, my absence hasn’t been assisting said agenda one iota, then that makes me feel much better!
Going by sea is MUCH better.
O.K, you need longer, and just hope you do not “pin the tail on the ice berg”, but other than that MUCH more relaxing.
Do not go by “charter”, look around the shipping firms. Many of them STILL take fare paying passangers, even on tankers and container ships!
Plus, if a ship gets into trouble I can swim. Much as I have tried, I have NOT yet learned to fly.