Quantifying Virtue Signaling

From Away Resorts UK.

How Many Air Miles Does Your Annual Holiday Add Up To?

According to new research*, the carbon footprint from overseas tourism is three to four times higher than previous estimates. As of 2019 it accounts for about 8% of global carbon emissions.
Here at Away Resorts we are passionate about staycations and helping holidaymakers become more eco-conscious. So we have put together an air miles calculator to help you work out your annual carbon footprint.

Give us your totals now!

https://www.awayresorts.co.uk/air-miles-calculator/

HT/Hayley S

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Vuk
May 30, 2019 10:27 am

Interesting article about Space-x multiplicity of satellites effect on night skys:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanocallaghan/2019/05/27/spacexs-starlink-could-change-the-night-sky-forever-and-astronomers-are-not-happy/#4cb5fdf259b6
perhaps worth considering for a WUWT discussion.

Johann Wundersamer
May 30, 2019 10:29 am

What good for is such a flight consumption calculator anyway –

every business man, tourist, eco-coral reefs protector, family visitor, UN or EU member consumes the same mass of fuels per 100 flight-miles.

https://www.google.com/search?q=fuel+consumption+cars+vs+planes&oq=fuel+consumption+cars+vs+planes+&aqs=chrome.

May 30, 2019 12:30 pm

If you follow the link at Away Resorts to the study, it reveals:

The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, was led by the University of Sydney’s Integrated Sustainability Analysis supply-chain research group.

“Our analysis is a world-first look at the true cost of tourism—including consumables such as food from eating out and souvenirs—it’s a complete life-cycle assessment of global tourism, ensuring we don’t miss any impacts,” co-author Arunima Malik from the University of Sydney says.

So it isn’t just the air travel itself, it’s everything tourists do once they get there. I don’t know if they considered that many of these tourists – especially the more affluent ones – would still visit spas, eat restaurant meals and emit carbon in other ways even if they stayed home.

I was wondering how they got to tourism travel accounting for 8% of global emissions as that figure seemed way too high to me.

And the bottom line:

The authors suggest flying less to reduce the greatest source of emissions. And if that’s not possible, lead author Manfred Lenzen of the University of Sydney suggests buying carbon abatement credits to offset the emissions. The credits fund things like reforestation efforts, wind farms and infrastructure upgrades. Many airlines now offer passengers the ability to buy carbon offsets when booking a flight, though the authors suggest that in the future it may be necessary to mandate such offsets since most passengers are not currently paying for them voluntarily.

In other words, you will be forced to act the way we think you ought.

This is all fairly silly. There is no practical alternative to air travel for trans-oceanic trips. The regularly scheduled ocean liner business died out 50 years ago thanks to jet aircraft.

David Bestwick
May 30, 2019 1:44 pm

I tried this calculator and put in 1 litre of fuel (~1 kg). Apparently this releases 2.31 kg of CO2 (!). Am I missing something?

Toto
May 30, 2019 2:59 pm

If you signal virtue, you don’t have it and you probably don’t even know what it is.
What you are actually signalling is self-righteousness.

Wharfplank
May 30, 2019 4:41 pm

Sydney is lovely . I shall go again now.

Anna Keppa
May 30, 2019 7:33 pm

Boston radio talk show host Howie Carr offers “Honest Howie’s Carbon Credits” to help offset your guilt over heating the planet.

Skeptical? Think it’s a scam?

Not to worry. As Howie soothingly assures us,

“You can trust me. I’m not like… the others.”

GregK
May 30, 2019 8:32 pm

If I wish to fly from Perth to London return the airline will generate, on my behalf, about 16.5 tonnes of CO2 [or so I have been reliably informed].
A kilo of wood contains about 500g of carbon which, when burnt, will produce about 1.65 kilos of C02.
To offset 16.5 tonnes of CO2 I will need to produce 5 tonnes of wood.

I’m planning to go in September…anybody know any quick growing trees?
Perhaps bamboo will do the job though if everybody offsets with bamboo there’s going to be a bit about.

High Treason
May 30, 2019 9:00 pm

I have a better idea for quantifying virtue signallers- if they are so hyperventilatable , they must simply cease living. Their bodies must be planted under a tree to give sustenance for the tree to act as a carbon sink.

Even if they do not sacrifice their self-righteous selves, they must cease several of the following-breathing, using any kind of transport (remember, bicycles need a lot of metals to make them), mobile phones and all other electronic devices, clothes, food(all those food miles) and using water from dams (dams impact on the environment-think I am joking-this is in chapter 18 on fresh water resources in UN Agenda 21) etc.

I was talking with a greenie at then recent election-brought up the population issue. The greenie was fine with the idea of culling humans. I asked who shall be allowed to live and who must die? Who will make that decision? What will be the criteria to decide who may be allowed to live. The answer- those that care for the planet (her) of course. Look up “Sustainable Development”- it is code for a stable population of 500 million. Oh dear, 94% of us will be the ones who must die.

I am well and truly on their chopping block for execution-white, male, straight, climate skeptic, patriotic, Libertarian, conservative, activist, have some semblance of humour that is used to ridicule the left, not a spring chicken, educated and Jewish. Yes, I am stuffed-well and truly stuffed under Green rule.