Shaking Off the Guilt of Flying
I have a confession to make, for I have sinned. I took a 13 hrs flight across the Pacific Ocean to Taiwan.
I find it difficult, even unrealistic, to convince anyone not to fly, myself included. In most cases, there is simply no reasonable alternative other than not going. I bet even the environmental activists fly to the Amazon to defend the rainforests. Sure they fly to defend the nature, and maybe their efforts would have offset the CO2 their flights emit, but how about the parents who take their kids to a trip of their lifetime? or a girl working abroad for years decides to go home for Christmas? or a sales manager whose family depends on his income has to fly to a trade show?
My point is that, everyone has a good reason to fly. Even for someone who cares about the environment, the value of flying usually exceeds the cost of the fare plus the guilt disincentive.
While I believe it is futile to persuade people not to fly, a few things I hope to see:
Airlines integrate carbon offsets plans. Make it mandatory, opt-out, or at least available for opt-in. If flying is a necessary sin of modern life, please have means of redemption ready. Passengers can buy offsets as an option with the ticket, or they could be sold on-site (well packaged of course).
An increase in price will lower demand. Perhaps a tax that goes toward technological innovation or public improvement to offset emission. People will consider the alternatives if the price isn’t right, like picking a closer destination or a mean of transportation that was more expensive without the tax. Most will still fly, but at least part of the fare will go toward offsetting the emission.
I’m not a climate scientist, use a unit I can understand. Only the hardcore activists understand what “15 tonnes of GHG” means. I still have to Google to get an idea. Tell me how many km of driving equivalent, or how many trees I need to plant to offset it (forget the technical details for now). The point is to get people thinking.
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I think at the time of recession (yes I said it again), there should be another alternative to holidays and vacations, such as making trains/buses to new holiday destinations more feasible and more comfortable than flying and cheaper of course. Not everyone has to fly to Vegas or fly to LA, there should be a cheaper way of carpooling and of course the trains. The travel agency can take this opportunity to boost their sales in the cheaper packages through other ways of travelling.