Written in June...
I am sitting on an EasyJet plane flying to Madrid. This is my first flight in over five years. I am sitting with an uncomfortable, heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I spent hours looking at the alternatives. Train/coach/liftshare/hitch/cycle/ferry. Comparing and contrasting the carbon emissions, time and price. The need to travel? A dear old friend's big surprise birthday. Love miles, Monbiot calls them. My moral decision has been one flight per year, so I haven't broken my own rules. So why so much guilt?
I question the system we find ourselves in. Where domestic flights are four times cheaper than the train. Where the aviation industry pays no duty on fuel and pays nothing for the pollution it causes. Where the Government has made promises of Zero Carbon economy by 2050 yet continues to invest in airport expansion. Where 80% of the flights taken in the U.K. are made by 10% of the population. Where the world’s leading climate scientists have calculated our current trajectory and yet here we are flying full speed into our own extinction. Sorry, is this too much? How many more years until we take action?
Imagine a world where we didn't need to get away because here was where we wanted to be. Imagine a world where the journey was part of the destination. Imagine a world where we acted as global citizens rather than privileged Westerners with social norms that said we deserve that city break after working so hard all week. The last few times I have left the U.K. I've taken the train. This time I couldn't afford it. I had the time, but not the money.
So let's talk economics! If we are looking through the lens of new economic models such as Kate Raworth's Doughnut, we can see that the planet has climatic boundaries such as the level of carbon in the atmosphere. We can also see from the inner boundary that for everyone to have a basic standard of living, there needs to be a limit on our own personal emissions.
One of the main issues is of course price. Who wants to spend more money and time to get to the same place? Well many people actually. There is a growing movement of global citizens who act with the awareness of a wider self. They are the visitors of the well researched Seat61. They are the Blablacar users. They are the ones who are questioning the status quo of speed and cost, seeing the wider and longer term repercussions of the convenience. Our species finds it hard to see long term and we generally choose the easiest option. These times are calling for a new understanding and responsibility to be accepted. That every one of our actions effects the greater whole. Although we cannot see that directly, we can sense it.
So what needs to change in the system? The true cost of transport needs to be transparent. From the cost of extracting fossil fuels to the long term cost of the environmental damage. The true cost of flying would be so much, that the majority would make alternative choices. I studied traditional economics back in early 2000s where the ‘polluter-pays model’ was still an evolving theory. More recently I studied a masters in new economics and the obvious models for us to survive as a species hold ecological health and human wellbeing at the heart. The root of the word ‘economy’ is ‘management of the household’. We are all economists! Without humans, there is no economy. Without a planet, there is no economy. What was the economy for again?
Love Miles:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/sep/21/travelsenvironmentalimpact.ethicalliving
Kate Raworth's Doughnut:
www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/
Seat61:
Www.seat61.com
Blablacar:
www.blablacar.com
Polluter-Pays Model:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/faqs/what-is-the-polluter-pays-principle/
I am sitting on an EasyJet plane flying to Madrid. This is my first flight in over five years. I am sitting with an uncomfortable, heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I spent hours looking at the alternatives. Train/coach/liftshare/hitch/cycle/ferry. Comparing and contrasting the carbon emissions, time and price. The need to travel? A dear old friend's big surprise birthday. Love miles, Monbiot calls them. My moral decision has been one flight per year, so I haven't broken my own rules. So why so much guilt?
I question the system we find ourselves in. Where domestic flights are four times cheaper than the train. Where the aviation industry pays no duty on fuel and pays nothing for the pollution it causes. Where the Government has made promises of Zero Carbon economy by 2050 yet continues to invest in airport expansion. Where 80% of the flights taken in the U.K. are made by 10% of the population. Where the world’s leading climate scientists have calculated our current trajectory and yet here we are flying full speed into our own extinction. Sorry, is this too much? How many more years until we take action?
Imagine a world where we didn't need to get away because here was where we wanted to be. Imagine a world where the journey was part of the destination. Imagine a world where we acted as global citizens rather than privileged Westerners with social norms that said we deserve that city break after working so hard all week. The last few times I have left the U.K. I've taken the train. This time I couldn't afford it. I had the time, but not the money.
So let's talk economics! If we are looking through the lens of new economic models such as Kate Raworth's Doughnut, we can see that the planet has climatic boundaries such as the level of carbon in the atmosphere. We can also see from the inner boundary that for everyone to have a basic standard of living, there needs to be a limit on our own personal emissions.
One of the main issues is of course price. Who wants to spend more money and time to get to the same place? Well many people actually. There is a growing movement of global citizens who act with the awareness of a wider self. They are the visitors of the well researched Seat61. They are the Blablacar users. They are the ones who are questioning the status quo of speed and cost, seeing the wider and longer term repercussions of the convenience. Our species finds it hard to see long term and we generally choose the easiest option. These times are calling for a new understanding and responsibility to be accepted. That every one of our actions effects the greater whole. Although we cannot see that directly, we can sense it.
So what needs to change in the system? The true cost of transport needs to be transparent. From the cost of extracting fossil fuels to the long term cost of the environmental damage. The true cost of flying would be so much, that the majority would make alternative choices. I studied traditional economics back in early 2000s where the ‘polluter-pays model’ was still an evolving theory. More recently I studied a masters in new economics and the obvious models for us to survive as a species hold ecological health and human wellbeing at the heart. The root of the word ‘economy’ is ‘management of the household’. We are all economists! Without humans, there is no economy. Without a planet, there is no economy. What was the economy for again?
Love Miles:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/sep/21/travelsenvironmentalimpact.ethicalliving
Kate Raworth's Doughnut:
www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/
Seat61:
Www.seat61.com
Blablacar:
www.blablacar.com
Polluter-Pays Model:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/faqs/what-is-the-polluter-pays-principle/
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