Despite the chilly conditions we had a steady stream of people past, with many discussions.
I was scanning the news as we have a late start weekends, and became rather incensed reading a couple of references to travel so wrote this:
I refer to the article in the Travel section of Saturday’s Herald ‘Future plans: a trip abroad with no departure date’ and Mary Holm’s comment at the end of ‘Free to travel’ I’m sure your letter will inspire many others to hit the road in retirement — COVID willing.
I hope it will be the road they ‘hit’, in a bus, as those who are knowledgeable about the burgeoning climate and eco crises believe there is no greenhouse gas budget for optional flying.
The only people who could, perhaps, have the right to fly, especially overseas, are young people on their single OE to see the world, those who have immediate family overseas, athletes attending ….and perhaps limited business-related trips where ‘Zoom’ is not a suitable alternative. I realise this is awful news for the travel and tourism industries, however, the alternative is even more dire.
Projected global heating is currently 3’ before the end of the century; we can only imaging the future that awaits our grandchildren and other threatened species, when already at the current 1.1’ we have the disasters and tipping points (list?) activated. The recently released book ‘Hope in Hell’ by J Porritt sounds an excellent source of up to date information.
I am currently on a 2 week hunger strike outside Parliament, following David G’s 21 days, to help draw attention to this critical situation; we, and the others who will follow, think its important to take this action before the election, to encourage people to vote for fast effective action to reduce emissions.
Perhaps instead of thinking about an overseas trip we could be focusing on local travel, and using our time and funds to support the disadvantaged, and improve resilience in our communities?
I wonder if we ‘boomers’ are going to wake up, take responsibility for the disaster we have allowed to develop over our lifetime, and act now to preserve a liveable future for our young people, and other species on our precious planet. For all of their sakes, I hope so.
