Comments on: Meditations on Deciding Never to Fly Again…

By: tcatherb

tcatherb — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 14:40:19 +0000

I agree with you Stephen! It’s just that many people have already moved. I also agree that rising fuel prices will restrict visits to those who have already moved (for the ones who can’t afford it anyway). I am just trying to picture a world that is so completely globalised, becoming localised and the implications this would have – in this case, i’m talking about emotional implications of maybe never being able to see your family/friends again (if they have already moved) if you can’t afford the increasing fuel prices. if its all essentially about money (i know its not, but many will see it that way), the richest (including business) in society will be able to continue to travel this way.

By: Stephen Watson

Stephen Watson — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:11:10 +0000

People live far away from their nearest and dearest because they expect that they will be able to just pop back and see them for the weekend or a little longer. As fuel becomes more expensive and less available it's inevitable that visits to overseas friends & family will become less frequent. Ultimately, people will have to really consider that moving far away as they did back in the 30s and 40s and realise that they may not see their family again if they do so. It's a case of cheap air travel normalising things which 60 years ago would have been considered extreme - including popping over to Stuttgart for the 2pm business sales meeting.

The whole issue is certainly bigger than flying - what we are looking at is nothing less that a reassessment of all the behaviour we've come to regard as normal and essential that will be seen from an increasingly different perspective in the decades ahead.

Well, that's my take anyway.

By: tcatherb

tcatherb — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:43:11 +0000

i think this is a bigger issue than just flying or not flying. as we all know the last few decades have seen globalisation on a massive scale. Along with that has come the movement of families/friends to different countries all over the world, businesses networking all over the world. in an ideal world (for some that is!), our nearest and dearest would live in the same vicinity, but increasingly they don’t. people are still going to want to see eachother (you wouldn’t catch me on a boat – I have a fear of deep water!). i think this is a difficult one. the adverts of the beautiful tropical beaches don’t help either! and many people i know go away to escape the British winter, not the summer!.

By: new zealand tourism

new zealand tourism — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:31:08 +0000

Hmm, you got your reasons, I do understand them, I’d have done the same
but well, I still think that flying is the best way to move

By: Stephen Watson

Stephen Watson — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 23:12:51 +0000

Sorry, it’s me again. I just though I’d add that Seize The Day have writtten a new song “Flying” which you should be able to listen to at http://www.seizetheday.org It brilliantly encapsulates just the dilemma facing Heather, above.

By: Tom Atkins

Tom Atkins — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 11:31:40 +0000

The front page of the BBC website today says in big letters "Should I give up flying?" Wow - would never have thought to see that so soon.

However the discussion shows what people really think - it's certainly an issue that divides people. The poll is currently about 50/50.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:12:06 +0000

Readed...

The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be...

By: Rowan Eisner

Rowan Eisner — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 00:45:00 +0000

I decided not to try not flying any more in the late 80s. I still wanted to travel so I crewed on a yacht to Fiji. But then I decided that not damaging the environment was not enough – I needed to work towards improving things. So I changed career and started working in environmental research. But then I needed to fly a lot for my job. And also I live in Australia and all my family is in the UK. I don’t see that it helps if I don’t fly if someone else will instead (eg with the job or my family). I try to go by surface as much as possible and don’t have a car (electric bike). But one international flight from Australia is roughly equivalent to a family’s car use for 4 years.

By: Richard Haine

Richard Haine — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 15:17:44 +0000

I agree with the comment that flying in itself is not necessarily harmful – we should be looking to the development of airships that could be electrically powered – perhaps using advanced computer technology to harbour wind systems such as the ‘jet stream’ and thereby create a new generation of environmentally friendly air transportation.

By: Shaun Chamberlin

Shaun Chamberlin — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 17:46:45 +0000

I used to fly a lot – I loved the experience (even the airports!) and it was cheap and easy. I even had a girlfriend in Berlin. About four years ago I learnt about the environmental impacts and I haven’t flown since. Everyone I know thought I was mad but I’m glad to say that over the past few years my decision has affected a few other people’s thinking too.

And as a 26 year old living in Greater London (Kingston) I’ve certainly never felt the need (or even the desire) for a car.

By: » About Flying

» About Flying — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 14:42:52 +0000

[...] *click* One more good article by Rob Hopkins. Bugger I just flew up and down to Greece, increasing my footprint considerably in spite of all my efforts to use as little energy as possible… [...]

By: Mat in Noosa

Mat in Noosa — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 12:24:50 +0000

I guess the peak oil conferences are going to be old hat anyway ?

Flight in its essence is not irreconcileable, birds fly etc. its non renewable resource use and population growth that will become more and more impossible. Otherwise what the future holds is only limited by the integrity of our collective willpower and imagination. Our vision of the future community, local, national and global is the starting point for what might happen, ie a vision of no flight lends itself to that outcome. I like to hope that my children will experience airtravel (Australia is very big), and international travel. Without this hope and action any chance of that is reduced. Lobby for renewables and support of truly sustainable technology development instead of war, politics, suppression, fear etc.

By: Doom-A-Holic

Doom-A-Holic — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 03:54:47 +0000

What about all the peak oil conferences? If people don’t fly to them then what is going to happen?

By: heather witham

heather witham — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 10:31:59 +0000

I did sign a pledge earlier this year: http://www.flightpledge.org.uk/ and the Gold certificate is hanging in the office. It has the caveat of flying only for family or personal emergencies. I’m relieved about that because I’m an American living permanently in the UK but my mother (I am an only child) and father live in the U.S. My pledge was just for the coming year and I may “need” to fly to the U.S. next year to give my mother some emotional support. I haven’t flown for 3 years — or seen her for that long — and I’m feeling like a bad daughter. It’s very tough when you’re split across oceans like this. If I do decide to go next year, I will have to make it extremely productive and make it a goodbye tour to everyone I would not visit during an emergency and also make sure I can do some work networking too. (I work in sustainability, so that’s helpful…) And I already decided I would take the shortest flight possible (Bristol to NYC) and then take the train around the rest of the US. Very expensive but it should be a great experience and will help ease my eco-guilt over the one flight.

By: Ugo Bardi

Ugo Bardi — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 21:51:51 +0000

Hello Rob, that’s a curious coincidence that I stumbled into your comment on giving up flying just two hours after I had told to my wife, “You know, I think we should take a resolution to stop flying”. I had been thinking to that for a while.

My wife says she would still like to travel by plane sometimes, so I am not sure I can stick to this idea. But I can say that in my last business trip, last month, I insisted with my colleagues to go by train to Germany, instead of using the plane as we would have normally done. It worked, why not?

I remember hearing Jean Laherrere, the oil geologist, telling me something like, “Planes? They are an albatross that flew for a while, it is already over, almost”. Probably it is true, no matter what resolutions we may take, it will be over soon.

Ugo