Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to climate activist Lisa Floris, greens like her need to be able to fly, to see things with their own eyes, to fully appreciate the harm we are doing to the planet.
Is giving up flying the best way to stop climate change?
By Lise Floris
I start sweating nervously every time I read about how air travel impacts the environment.
Having lived abroad for more than 20 years, I take a plane as if it were a city bus, worrying only about how to get from A to B as quickly as possible.
And yet I know there are very valid arguments for why we should substantially reduce aeroplane journeys, or stop flying altogether.
A very guilty pleasure
Without doubt I am responsible for the emission of hundreds of tonnes of CO2.
…
Modern-day technology means that business meetings can be held via Skype or video conference and we can visit any place in the world just by going on YouTube or putting on our virtual reality glasses.
But perhaps flying offers something even more important. Could it be that flying is necessary for the soul?
…
Flying in order to “be there” has taught me about many things.
With tears in my eyes, I have seen thousands of acres of palm oil plantations in Asia from the air — and their impact on wildlife from the ground.
…
Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-04/flying-climate-change-stay-grounded/11067918
The solution is obvious – while flying restrictions should apply to the general population, those who feel most deeply about the degradation we are inflicting on the Earth clearly need access to air travel so they can fully appreciate and cherish the beauty of our world’s natural spaces.
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Musings of a backsliding climate hypocrite.
“Is giving up flying the best way to stop climate change?”
This question is about as meaningful as asking, “Is banning hunting rifles the best way to stop unicorns being killed?”
The CO2 fraud has another victim. I wonder what this author is going to think sometime down the line when she finds out CO2 is a benign, beneficial gas, and not the Destroyer of the Earth that she has been led to believe it is.
The author has placed her faith in the wrong people. As a result, she suffers.
YUP! this is my main peeve about greens, their arrogance and hypocrisy!! EEEK!
The hypocrisy is not unlike the Christian religion, where they are all sinners, but it’s ok if they ask Jesus for forgiveness.
Greens are ok as long as they acknowledge climate change.
If you’re a denier, then you’re going to hell (on earth)
Meh. For context, I am an agnostic – but even if I were religious, I would not be a Christian. There are several points on which I disagree on just what constitutes “sin.”
However, that I know this is because I have actually studied the religious basis of Christianity. The ignorant that believe there is an “easy button” obviously have not.
To receive the forgiveness of the Christ (in actual Christian theology, not the charlatan money-making “TV preacher” variety), you must satisfy three conditions:
1) Sincere repentance of the sin.
2) Abjuration of the sin.
3) Amendment, insofar as possible, of any damage done in committing the sin.
Not being inside the head of Ms. Floris, I will grant that she may have achieved the first condition. (Unlike some others, whose insincerity has been shown when they thought their words would not become public knowledge.)
Certainly she has not satisfied either of the other two – which is typical for at least 99.97% of the “climate warriors.”
That is the *fruit* of forgiveness, not the conditions for forgiveness. There are no conditions for forgiveness. However, unless you see the fruits, it is doubtful that the person really asked for/felt the need for forgiveness.
The closing line in her article
“Plane designers and manufacturers must be encouraged to continue, full speed ahead, with the development of solar, electric and fuel-efficient planes.”
shows how really clueless she is.
Had she not flown over palm trees but actually visited the area, she would have seen that the palm oil industry is pulling thousands put of poverty, and that in Europe we wiped out forests for the same purpose. The neo colonialism of telling Indonesia to stop the palm oil industry is appalling.
Things that make me go “ah-humm”
Sorry it’s a bit off topic but it is about Green policies and flying….
The DLR, German Aerospace Center (DLR) is the national aeronautics and space research centre of the Federal Republic of Germany, has just publish a piece about green electricity generation (Windfarms) and flying insects.
From https://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10176/372_read-32941/#/gallery/33841
So the Greens enjoy flying but through their action will kill so many billions on flying insects.
Not to worry sweetie, CO2 is neither a pollutant or a driver of climate change, fly all you want.
Since I “feel most deeply about the degradation we are inflicting on the Earth” but don’t fly much, I’d be willing to sell some “air travel credits” to any Green who needs them to not feel so guilty.
“Could it be that flying is necessary for the soul?” Speaking of the stupid that burns.
I pity all the humans who lived before the Wright brothers, having no souls.
Little Floris never considers she isn’t necessary. Why does it matter so much for the planet that SHE get to see and cry about the the monoculture palm forests (that were planted by green zealots to make diesel)? The gigatons of hubris these worthless costly @ur momisugly#$& teary, mentally ill clones possess stretches credibility out of site. And what does she see? She sees what she already preconceives with her designer brains. She’s a model, a robot programmed to project.
Golly, won’t increased concentrations of atmospheric CO2 reduce the efficiency of
jet engines ?
Are there any studies of how higher levels of CO2 have effected internal combustion
engines recently?
Or has there been no effect at all?
Inquiring minds want to know…
“Or has there been no effect at all?”
Bingo! No measurable effect, anyway. CO2 increasing from 300 molecules out of 1 million to 400 molecules out of 1 million equals an increase of 1 molecule of CO2 per 10,000 other molecules in the atmosphere, not counting H20 molecules or dust molecules. Not counting the effects of varying numbers of water molecules is what makes the effects of the change in CO2 unmeasurable. (distinct from immeasurable)
SR
Surely as she is flying she can look down and appreciate the planet and deserts are greening.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/carbon-dioxide-fertilization-greening-earth/
Deserts ‘greening’ from rising CO2 – Phys.org
Search domain phys.org/news/2013-07-greening-co2.htmlhttps://phys.org/news/2013-07-greening-co2.html
I’m not aware of a groupthink that is more hypocrite, selfish and ignorant than green activists.
“Could it be that flying is necessary for the soul?” If only those who have flown have had their souls nourished, pity for a moment the billions suffering soul starvation! Do we not have a duty, yea, even a moral obligation to see that every living person has taken to the air?
And what of the generations past, who died in their sins and ignorance, before the Messiahs, Frank and Orville, showed us the Way to the heavens?
Had Floris looked out the window from a typical cruising altitude of 11 km to see a thunderstorm rising above her, and had she noted that the effective emission altitude of the planet is below her, the fear of greenhouse gases could have beene resolved easily.
So flying could be effective therapy to this climate worrier, if only she were aware of what it means to experience the diminished greenhouse effect at altitude.
It’s OK to destroy the planet, as long as you feel bad about it.
This piece of emoting is nothing but social climbing. To be seen as “Upper Middle Class” nowadays requires strenuous, public, competitive virtue-signaling. The general idea is to show yourself a stinking rich ascetic. Points are accrued for “fair-trade” organic cotton $100 t-shirt, conspicuously drinking a “lunch” of pureed kale, which will also crap your way quickly to fashionable heroin-chic emaciation. Then be seen! running a marathon “for charity,” while normal people put a burger on the grill and pop a beer. You don’t see ANY of these types NOT flying, you see them TALKING about not-flying. You also don’t see them living in tiny houses, eschewing their exotic-locale vacations or hybrid BMW’s, eating their dogs For The Planet or, in actual point of fact, refusing to reproduce. This earnestly-concerned hand-wringing bullshit is just that–a class marker.
So, Greens are too important to stop flying. Surprise, surprise. I *never* would have guessed totalitarians in green form would be hypocrites as well.
Couldn’t drones be used to capture, from the air, the sought after pictures of devastation, and the pictures shared via Teleconferencing among the enlightened ones? But that wouldn’t give them the thrilling rush of masochistic guilt they crave. .
What’s wrong with Google Earth? I just zoomed in on Indonesia and the palm plantations are easy to spot. How many grams of CO2 did that cost me?
Don’t worry; as soon as the Climate Revolution occurs, and the Global Socialist People’s Republic of Climatopia is in control, off she, and those like her will go to the Climate Re-education gulags.
These greens certainly are highly hypocritical….they don’t want anyone (other than themselves) to fly but yet they always seem to encourage mass transit. Isn’t commercial flight a form of mass transit? Unless you have chartered or own your own plane you are using mass transit when you fly, regardless of what class you are in. So in their minds it’s far better to take the bus rather than have your own car (and probably take a ferry rather than have your own boat…unless maybe it is a rowboat!) but people should stop flying commercial….
Personally I’ve been happy to give up flying and none of the reasons have anything to do with perceived climate issues. First and business class tend to be out of my budget and coach is like being a sardine packed in a can for a few hours while you have your fellow sardine’s fins poking you in your ribs because the seats are way too small. Then there’s the time wasted in the airport with security and check in, the rip off fees airlines charge for baggage and just about everything else, the limits they (and the TSA) put on what you can carry aboard and just the whole aggravation of all of it. I’d much rather drive for 8 hours a day and spend nights in a motel to get where I want to go. I would only fly if I wanted to cross a very large body of water, like the
Atlantic. Otherwise I’d opt for a trans-Atlantic cruise, but that would be too slow and too costly.
I wonder if she knew Maurice Strong? He also lived in China, and lived much the same lifestyle. Her life history told me all I need to know about her.
Chinese cities have high population densities and chronic air pollution issues. If you want to constantly remind yourself of humanity’s effects on environment, it’s the place to live.