Monday, July 12th, 2021, 3:10 am
Flying as an Impractical Status Symbol is Really Bad and Needs to End
Filed under: We may need ‘flight shame’ (not ‘air miles’ pride)
S someone who works from home (for many years already) I may be biased, but here we go anyway.
I’ve long regarded long-distance flying (across nations, oceans, continents) as largely unnecessary or considered that to be a luxury that’s rarely essential except for visiting close relatives. Some people have taken advantage of the lowered cost of flying (not taking account/measure of environmental costs) to take a plane journey to some distant beach for only a few days.
Well, the pandemic makes such travel even less convenient than it was before (adding to the security theatre in all major airports around the world). For the sake of this planet, among other things such as biodiversity, one can hope not for travel bans but for travel deflation. Humans do need to travel, but rarely is it imperative to travel very far for very short timespans. There are other ways to get things done. Working from home, where the nature job is doable/applicable, is another.
If something good does come out of this whole pandemic/health crisis, perhaps it will be a much-needed decrease in travel. It has long been a major contributing factor not just to pollution (a silent killer) but to global warming.
