Ask HN: Could you give up flying?
Let's just assume flying is bad for the environment (regardless of the mounting evidence). But, could you give it up? Disclaimer:I have asked this in a previous thread I know. I just want to know if people think they actually could.
6 comments
[ 0.17 ms ] story [ 25.0 ms ] threadI live over 18000 km (well over 10k miles) away from my home town, and I like to visit my family from time to time, and 25+ hours of air travel is bad enough as it is so traveling by ship is out of question. So I probably wouldn't give up flying altogether, as long as the price isn't too high.
However, I'd be willing to refrain from taking domestic flights (but then I normally use the trains anyway) and cut down on non-essential international travel.
Ultimately, the main factor in changing people's habits will be economic e.g. via a tax that captures the negative externalities.
Any government imposing a tax like that will be hugely unpopular.
I don't think it will ever happen at a govt level. It really is s case of each individual taking the choice.
Smoking could be a good analogy here, with regulation coming into place. But that took 50+ years.
Could I give up air freight? Uh-oh. Despite overland transport options, despite New Panama, removing air freight would hurt, a lot, directly and indirectly. But yeah, I guess I would get used to the new, planeless world economy - even though it would be a very different world from today's JIT industrial one.