Could you give up flying? Meet the no-plane pioneers

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From The Guardian

Growing numbers of travellers are abandoning air travel to help save the planet – even if it means spending 14 days on a train.

It has taken Roger Tyers four days to reach Moscow by train from Kiev. His destination is Beijing: a trip that will take 14 days, with a couple of overnight stops along the way. Tyers, an environmental sociologist at the University of Southampton, is on his way to China to research attitudes to the environment, the climate emergency and personal responsibility. “Given that, I thought it would be somewhat hypocritical of me to fly,” he says over Skype from his hostel room.

It has been months in the planning – he had to convince his bosses to give him a month off to travel to and from China. Has it been a pain? “It definitely has. It’s a matter of getting your train schedule in line with your visa requirements. I didn’t realise I needed a visa to travel through Mongolia, even though I’m not stopping there. There have been moments when I’ve been close to giving up and either cancelling the whole trip or just booking a flight.” But he is glad he has stuck with it, he says. “I have to prove it is possible.”

[Clan Line]

I bet Emma Thompson reads the Gruniad....................

[froome]

In terms of taking personal responsibility for minimising our impact on the planet, which we should all be doing, reducing or eliminating the numbers of flights taken by those who fly frequently should be high on anyone's list of actions. I do get slightly irked by articles that tell me that a new movement has started, when there have been movements to achieve this for at least the last two decades, and people like me signed up over 20 years ago and haven't flown since. But it is encouraging to see it happening again, and perhaps this time more people will take it seriously and consider their own actions and responsibilities.

[TaplowGreen]

I bet Emma Thompson reads the Gruniad....................

No - she's too busy planting trees 

[patch38]

I only wish not flying was a realistic option: apart from being environmentally unfriendly, it's a thoroughly uncivilized way to travel. But I can only imagine my boss's reaction if I were to tell him that my next trip to Beijing was going to take 14 days each way.

[jamestheredengine]

I only wish not flying was a realistic option: apart from being environmentally unfriendly, it's a thoroughly uncivilized way to travel. But I can only imagine my boss's reaction if I were to tell him that my next trip to Beijing was going to take 14 days each way.

And then there'd be the hassle of Belarussian and Russian visas. Going via Turkey, Iran, and the Stans would not improve anything, and gets uncomfortably close to areas the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) advises against travelling to.


Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronyms

[welshman]

My last flight was in 1969 - on a Cambrian Airways Vickers Viscount. 

[patch38]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTQ7aMHsRGs

"Instead of spending days on end lying about in a sort of floating Selfridges..."

If God had intended us to fly, he wouldn't have given us the railways.

[broadgage]

My last flight was nearly 20 years ago. I do not intend to fly again.
I would like to see aviation fuel taxed to the same extent as road fuel.

[SandTEngineer]

I've tried to work out seeing my son in Canada from here in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).  One day in the UK to port, fourteen days minimum each way by ship (if you can find one thats not a cruise), one day by rail to his home.  And then there is the journey back again......

[grahame]

I've tried to work out seeing my son in Canada from here in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).  One day in the UK to port, fourteen days minimum each way by ship (if you can find one thats not a cruise), one day by rail to his home.  And then there is the journey back again......

I don't know what the relative none-green value per passenger of a shortish haul flight (say Bristol to Edinburgh) is compared to a long haul (say Gatwick to Toronto), nor what the breakdown of flights made is by distance.   My (personal) approach is to reduce where I can practically any flying - which does sometimes mean taking a longer or medium distance journey in the air.   I can work at a laptop on a train and - in my personal case of the interest I have in rail future be learning too, and I find that much easier and less stressful.  But sometimes, time can be of the essence.

We're spending 3 days with my (step)son in New York later this year.  NOT flying, but it puts us out of ordinary circulation for a number of weeks;  it doesn't mean I'll be offline, but it does mean that board and lodgings along the way will be at ship rather than home prices, and clearly comes in more expensive than flying.   I can't remember my last internal flight in the UK even though I've done a lot of Scotland trips;  in Europe, a rail journey to Aarlborg was complemented by a flight back because of time constraints, and a trip to Munich some 30 months ago was a time-saver by air because of a family bereavement and I could not be away too long but had commitments. Otherwise, rail to Spain, rail to Germany, rail to Switzerland.

[Celestial]

My last flight was nearly 20 years ago. I do not intend to fly again.
I would like to see aviation fuel taxed to the same extent as road fuel.

Air Passenger Duty does the same thing but in a different way. It also means that airlines aren't tempted (where it would be possible) to refuel for both journeys overseas where the fuel tax would be lower.

Looking at a British Airways 777(BA^» (British Airways - about) 777), Air Passenger Duty (APD^▸ (Air Passenger Duty)) for a typical flight would be £30,000.  I don't know how that would compare with your wish but I suspect it's not far off.

Of course saving the planet is more than just flying less. For example, food miles are important too, that bottle of port shipped from Spain will be more damaging than a nice bottle of English sparkling water.  And the greenhouse gases belched by the cow that makes up a nice steak are very damaging too.  


  
Edit:VickiS - Clarifying abbreviations and Acronyms

[broadgage]

Port from SPAIN ! oh no sir, that wont do at all. Port comes from Portugal. It is imported by rail or ship, not by air and therefore should have a modest carbon footprint.
I avoid regular consumption of bottled water due to the cost and environmental harm resulting therefrom. Tap water is greener and cheaper.

[TaplowGreen]

My last flight was nearly 20 years ago. I do not intend to fly again.

………..did the new planes not have a satisfactory buffet? 

[Timmer]

………..did the new planes not have a satisfactory buffet? 

Only a trolley