Climate change activists are calling for airlines to introduce flight quotas, with travellers to instead commute long distances using ground transport.
Dr Helen Hutchinson, social scientist and spokesperson for environmental group Flight Free Australia, believes flying should be scrapped entirely until it’s ‘safe’ or emission-free.
‘It’s an individual action – it’s the worst thing you can do,’ Dr Hutchinson told 3AW’s Tom Elliott on Thursday.
‘A lot of that’s due to the fact we’ve prioritised air [travel]. A lot of other countries have actually put an equal amount of money into ground transport – such as really good buses, really good trains – and we could’ve done the same in Australia.’
Dr Helen Hutchinson, social scientist and spokesperson for environmental group Flight Free Australia, believes flying should be scrapped entirely until it’s ‘safe’ or emission-free
‘When you look at what’s happening in Australia now, most of our long-distance trains have been privatised,’ she continued.
Elliott then questioned the activist on time constraints, explaining he gets a ‘week off at this time of year’ in which he spent six days in Queensland with his family.
‘Now, if we’d driven it’s a two-day drive there and a two-day drive back which only leaves two days to enjoy it. It’s just not possible,’ he argued.
‘Well, there’s places in the world now where they’re asking employers to give people time to get to the destination. And you can go [to Queensland] by train,’ Dr Hutchinson said.
The host then cuts Dr Hutchinson off, remarking that it still takes two days to get to Queensland by train to which the activist simply responds: ‘Yep, I’ve just done it.’
‘What I’m suggesting is maybe you can ask for an extra four days which you can travel there and travel back,’ she added.
Modern day Australia couldn’t exist without flying, Elliott responded.
Modern day Australia couldn’t exist without flying, 3AW host Tom Elliott told a Flight Free Australia activist
‘The Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane air corridor is one of the busiest in the world, and people want to be able to commute and fly between the cities,’ he said.
‘A lot of modern business and so forth works because of that. You’re saying merely we just shouldn’t do that?’
Dr Hutchinson said their phone call was an example of how long-distance communication is available in other forms, with a lot of businesses turning to video calling platforms off the back of the pandemic.
‘It’s not difficult to change your behaviours if you just look at the other options, and what we’re encouraging people to do is to just look at the other options,’ she continued.
‘I went to university in the UK, and every couple of years I like to go visit old friends there – am I allowed to do that or is that not allowed?’ Elliott then asked.
‘I’m not making a choice for you, as for the people who have joined Flight Free Australia made that choice not to fly until it’s safe to do so,’ the activist said.
‘One of the big problems with emissions is the aviation fuel, and aviation is one of the very few industries where we don’t have an alternate means of energy.’
Elliott then asked whether Flight Free Australia would prefer if long-distance travel reverted back to using ships regardless of the drawn-out travel times.
The activist did not respond, before quietly asking ‘does it sound good to you?’
‘Well, not really. I don’t have the time,’ he laughed.
‘I don’t have the time to be travelling two weeks on a ship to get there. I don’t think the world is like that anymore.’
‘I think what we have to look at is the alternative,’ Dr Hutchinson said.
‘We’re actually living in a climate emergency right now, and every small amount of emissions we can possibly save we really have to do. It’s not a question of what we might like to do, it’s a question of what we have to do.’
Commerical flights have long since been a point of contention for climate change activists, with Jean-Marc Jancovici proposing a universal quota should be imposed on air travel earlier this year.
The French engineer and climate activist said people should be limited to four long haul flights in their lifetime in order to mitigate climate change.
The call to restrict flying comes as environmentalists were slammed this week after suggesting dogs should go vegan.
Research by the University of Winchester found cats and dogs consume about 9 per cent of all land animals killed for food – about 7 billion animals annually – as well as billions of fish and aquatic animals, The Guardian reported.
The call to restrict flying comes as environmentalists were slammed this week after suggesting dogs should go vegan (stock image)
If all the world’s dogs went vegan it would save more greenhouse gas emissions than those produced by the UK, it would free up a larger land mass than Mexico and more freshwater than all the renewable freshwater in Denmark, and would feed about 450 million additional people, the research claimed.
If all the world’s cats went vegan, it would save more emissions than those produced by New Zealand, land larger than Germany, freshwater exceeding all renewable freshwater in Jordan, and would feed about 70 million additional people.
The revelation was regarded as ‘tragic’ by editorial cartoonist Johannes Leak on Thursday evening.
‘[Dogs] don’t get that much out of life, it’s all about meat and walks you know and they want to take even the meat out of the diet,’ he told Sky News host Chris Kenny.
‘It’s just tragic. Pushing it way too far.’
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