Ciara37° heat is depressing. So is the way we’re dealing with climate collapse. The language we’re using, the excuses we’re making. Making heat records a game, excitedly watching to see if Number Goes Up. The news said the latest temperature had ‘ruined the chance of another new record’. And we all seem to agree that, conveniently, there’s no use in inconveniencing ourselves personally by consuming less or not flying until the day after every billionaire has given up their private jet.
Michal JanWe tone-policed flight shame away so quickly. We made smoking socially unacceptable. Smokers still smoke and are free to smoke, but give you a slightly apologetic embarrassed grin as they sneak out to the smoking area. When someone says they've bought a holiday home in Spain and someone else says they're bringing the whole family to Thailand to celebrate their birthday, there are no apologetic grins and the social expectation is still that everyone else exclaims "Oh how lovely! Lucky you!"
Marjon@CiaraNi Yes. I've been thinking it really is time to stop that.
Sometimes, when people are discussing holiday plans, I'll mutter "I don't fly anymore, except for family visits, because my conscience won't let me. But you do you". But I'll be the only one at the lunch table.
During this June heatwave (11-12 days here, with a maximum of 37 degrees), I've been thinking I should really start speaking up more. Someone should start changing the social expectation, right?
Young people flying to holiday destinations multiple times a year. I don't get it. It's not like they haven't been aware of climate change since middle school. And they'll be suffering the consequences for their whole - hopefully long - lives.
Jonathan SchofieldMy generation and the one before it have made prospects for young people relentlessly shit. They know it. And we’ve trained them to think that voting is the only real agency they have. Which is bullshit.
For the most part, I don’t begrudge them making their lives momentarily less shit
Pieter Kuiper 🌍🇳🇱@urlyman
I agree. My daughter not flying would not decrease the CO2 emissions. The fuel that she might have saved gets consumed by some other tourist, or by the military.
In the meantime, part of my pension is coming from Big Oil etc.
There is very little an individual can do. (But of course Trump, Putin, the generals in Sudan, etc could have chosen not to start their wars.)
I’m not giving young people a pass. I’m saying I understand how they get swept along in the activities we’ve told them are the markers of success, and I cut them slack because of it.
The very little that an individual can do is how we come to be where we are, through trillions of very little but destructive and destabilising things.
We *must* choose differently. But every person, young and old, has to reach their own epiphany on it
@marjon I’ve tried being passive, not performing the Oh Lovely! reaction when someone says they’ve booked a flight to their newest city break. Lately, like yourself, seeing how badly it's going, I’ve tried working into the conversation that I only fly when it's to family on islands, and then only on whatever leg of the trip requires a plane. I mention that I’d love to do #NoFly, but for family reasons, I can only do #NoFrivolousFly until I have time for long, multi-leg train trips across seas.
“I've been thinking I should really start speaking up more. Someone should start changing the social expectation, right?”
Yes! Me too. We need to collectively change the social expectation and the conversation. To encourage each other to use our collective superpowers, taking action like a mass boycott of holiday flights.
annaf@CiaraNi @marjon I get this too, stopped flying years ago thinking there would be electric planes in a few years time, but still nothing 20 years on.
So I get family saying things like ‘you won’t stop your kids flying I’m afraid’ like some kind of cautionary tale *on me* (also I’ve never stopped my kids flying, they have to make their own judgement call). It’s the older / my generation, it would just be nice if we all supported each other in this crisis 😢
Just Tom... 🐁@tompearce49 Yes. That's a good comparison.
Sebastian Crane 🏳️⚧️@CiaraNi Then there's the tragedy of well-meaning efforts like the ban on short-haul flights in France, supposed to increase use of more environmentally-friendly options like taking the train - which would be great if the French state-owned railway didn't have abysmal planning and trains already at capacity!
@seabass The lack of a functional, reliable, integrated train system in and around through Europe is a huge issue. It's also a different issue. A mass boycott of holiday flights does not require us to have an alternative means of transport to the same destination first. We just choose not to go on holidays to a destination that requires a flight. We have our holiday somewhere else that we can get to by train or bus or bike, or we have a holiday at home.
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UKmy extended family is from Malaysia, my older relatives who migrated to UK in late 1960s are now accepting they may not be able to go "back home" in their remaining lifetimes (two crashed aircrafts of the national airline with multiple casualties are also a factor, but the environment is also one (as well as flying and airports increasingly becoming hostile environments, and security risks with crossing the Middle East)
My older aunts now only go on holiday in mainland Europe or within Britain.
I have not been on an aircraft myself since 2001 and that was for a work trip, and have no intention of doing so..
@CiaraNi I agree with you entirely!
CaveDave@CiaraNi I wish I didn't have to fly again. To do that, trains across continental Europe need to be better
The lack of a reliable, integrated train system through Europe is a big problem for people who must travel for work or family matters. Sometimes it is not possible in the time and budget available to avoid a flight for at least one leg of the trip. That does not stop a mass boycott of holiday flights, though. A holiday does not require us to have an alternative means of transport to the same destination. We can choose holidays in places that do not require a flight.
Nic Dafis@CiaraNi I have students, and family members, who go abroad on holiday twice, three times a year, and I've stopped pretending to be interested and pleased for them.
I try not to be a total arse about it, but I just had to cancel a citybreak in bloody *Birmingham* because I rely on public transit and the trainlines in Wales were buckling in the heat.
@nic Snap! I've stopped responding Oh Lovely! too. And lately have upgraded to mentioning that I don't fly for holidays. I'm not telling others they shouldn't frivolously fly, but just trying to normalise the fact that holidays are possible without flights. (Many people I know equate the two. They hear 'no fly' as 'no holidays')
"I just had to cancel a citybreak in bloody *Birmingham* because I rely on public transit and the trainlines in Wales were buckling in the heat."
Perfect illustration.
Jonathan👣🚲@CiaraNi As if smoking is even the least bit contained.
slightly apologetic embarrassed grin as they sneak out to the smoking area = dump tobacco, weed and whatever else on neighbors and passersby and threaten anyone who complains