Define none essential flights

[Doggle Avaddit]

Originally Posted by Boddie

Non essentail flights are the ones the royals take every day to turn up at a function just so as kids can wave their flags.

I only took 4 flights the whole of 2009.

One was for a job interview in Boston, US, the second was for a 3 day conference in Vegas where I got to see a humingbird, the third was to attend a few surgical cases in Houston and the forth was to attend a training course in Boston. In each case I could not have conducted any of the excercises in the UK so they were all essential.

I had no holidays abroad.

In 2010 the conference will be in Dublin, and the training course in Ohio

You may already be aware of this, but Aer Arrann fly Turboprop aircraft from Britain to Eire. Apparently these are far less polluting than your average fanjet, and according to Aer Arran, can be less polluting per passenger mile than a train.
I doubt you would want to fly Turboprop to Ohio though, even if you could!

[pitre]

Originally Posted by eeyore

99% of air travel is non essential - the great majority of flying for business is for meetings that could just as easily be done by teleconference , while although i agree about the necessity of holiday now and then you dont have to fly to have a nice break, loads of people holiday in the uk - plus much of northern europe is within easy striking distance by ferry and train

so the basic answer to "who is making these non essential flights" is holiday makwers an business men.

That said the whole thing is something of as red herring as air travel only accounts for 4% of anthropogenic CO2 so stopping flying wont make a massive difference anyway - the real big culprits are power generation, driving private cars on unecessary journeys, and the manufacture of cement.

If electrical power generation is a big culprit why all the hype about electric cars ?

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by pitre

If electrical power generation is a big culprit why all the hype about electric cars ?

because its only electricity generation from fossil fuels which is a culprit - electricity can also be generated from alternative or nuclear sources

[Rich_]

If we lived our lives with only things that were essential, the room you are sitting in would be very bare. You wouldn't be reading this for a start.
If we stop making non essential journeys the airlines will go bust and the car industry too.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Rich_

If we stop making non essential journeys the airlines will go bust and the car industry too.

and from the point of view of arresting climate change that wouldnt necessarily be a bad thing.

of course taken to extremes you could wind up living in a cave and hunter gathering but there is going to come a time when we have to make hard choices and not just do whatever we want regardless of the consequences.

[Ted Pearson]

Remarkable idea! If everyone screaming for ‘Carbon-Reduction’ were serious about their claims, they would be moving into their caves as we speak. I suggest that any of these people who (as Rich_ says) are able to read this as well as our ‘friends’ in Dopenhagen are proving themselves to be hypocrites. In order to redeem yourselves of this dishonor, go now to the fuse-box and pull the main switch, then go to each gas vehicle you own and cut the distributer wires and finally shut off the main valve of any gas inlet to your house. In one year write the rest of us a letter and tell us how you fared. If all the alarmists would for once make the sacrifices they want to impose on the rest of us, that alone should reduce our total emissions greatly. Finally; If their actions do actually effect this supposed ‘Manmade Global Warming’, then the rest of us may consider it.

[Doggle Avaddit]

Hmm, I wonder what 6 million people in Britain are going to hunt and gather anyway.

[Rich_]

Originally Posted by eeyore

there is going to come a time when we have to make hard choices and not just do whatever we want regardless of the consequences.

I don't think we will make any choices. We will probably just have to adapt as required as resources run out, or become unprofitable.No one's going to give up their modern way of life unless they are forced to it would seem.

[Ted Pearson]

Originally Posted by Doggle Avaddit

Hmm, I wonder what 6 million people in Britain are going to hunt and gather anyway.

I guess we are all just going to 'live on love'.
Oooooooohhh
'Till we are hungry enough to hunt each other.
I say we start with the ones who took the power away from us.

[Ted Pearson]

Flight is only essential when one is being chased by a predator.