With conversations around the world taking place on the reality of global warming and more and more people starting to realise the drastic changes themselves. Whether through seeing changes in their local areas, the effect global warming is having in already extremely hot or extremely cold areas or finally understanding the evidence scientists have been putting forward for years, it is now time to stand up and make a change! While for years, we’ve been encouraged to recycle our belongings, throw away less food and consider the detrimental influence a leaking tap or a drafty door can have to our energy bills, it’s becoming more important than ever before to consider our footprint in the world and how we can make it smaller.
The Harms of Air Travel
Air travel is possibly, the most harmful thing we can do to the planet (besides our already over-flowing population, which is another awkward conversation that people are trying to avoid!) and it’s easy to see why. With a staggering 5million barrels of non-sustainable oil being used every day back in 2017 and still a distinct lack of sustainable or environmentally-friendly fuel available to use in the air-travel industry today (in 2019). While other popular travel methods, such as buses, trains, trams and cars are slowly becoming greener, there are still an immense 8 million people that travel every day via the skies and have no alternative option.
It’s unlikely we are going to see electric planes in the next decade, considering the weight of the batteries that are required to send a plane short distance, let alone the thousands of miles needed to cover a long-distance journey. But, is there a solution?
Should Air Travel Be Restricted?
While 8million people are travelling every day, many of them are only going short distances and while they are covering a distance that is feasible by car or train, the cost of air fare has fallen below these alternatives in recent years. Unfortunately, while it’s convenient for the individuals or families that are travelling, it’s destroying the atmosphere by emitting harmful levels of carbon and fuel and potentially causing harm to the futures of their children and grandchildren who will be left to deal with the unfortunate mess.
A possible solution, although likely an unfavourable one, is to put the prices of air-fare back up with a hefty additional fee for travelling by an unsavoury method or put a restriction on people travelling for leisure, with one short-haul journey permitted every one or two years per person, with a long-haul journey allowable every three to five years per person. Some might argue that business travellers need to fly more often, so it should make sense to tax businesses more for their travel allowance. While a few decades ago, there was a distinct comparison between those flying purely for business purposes and those choosing to fly for leisure, today everyone is always connected and always on, and the line between flight purposes has blurred. This makes it harder to determine the true cost of flying in both the leisure and business sectors but does encourage an additional flat tax across all journeys, rather than some.
An Alternative to Long Distance Holidays
It’s a dream of many to slingshot into a faraway destination, however, it’s becoming less sustainable to be able to justify Bob’s flight from the UK to the US when the fuel burn is 1 gallon every single second the plane is in the air (average for a Boeing 747). Instead, if Bob and Bob’s family drove from the UK to France in an average sized family hatchback, they would use an incomparable 5.61 gallons of fuel for each journey, a much more reasonable amount that can be justified for a heart-warming and memorable family holiday. Of course, staycations are another popular option, there’s no need to learn new customs or try to grasp a foreign language and there’s no waiting around in passport queues or having to change up your money either. There are plenty of options for a staycation too, whether you choose a traditional caravan holiday, a swanky park home or have your own caravan to take to a luxury hire and touring park.
Doing Your Bit
We like to think of the world as a stable, unbreakable rock, yet unfortunately that’s not the case. The Planet Earth faces unrepairable damage if we do not change our ways soon and before we realise, it could be too late to undo the damage that has already been made. Consider the world, your home, the next time you are thinking of booking a long-haul holiday with all it’s harmful repercussions and consider booking yourself a lovely peaceful caravan holiday instead.
