Not having to seriously consider alternatives to the dominant ways of doing things is one of the beauties of privilege
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 15:52.
I once told an supposedly "green" friend that in the future he will not get to jet off to India or Brazil if he can afford, as that will not be ecologically responsible. He nearly cried.
Flying Is One of the Worst Things You Can Do for the Environment -- So Why Do So Many Well-Intentioned Folks Do It?
It's not easy being "Green" - that is life... as highlighted here, and provided in full below, from AlterNet:
The trouble with this is that flying is the single most ecologically costly act of individual consumption, one that requires the exploitation of large amounts of environmental and human resources. In a world of deep inequality, it thus also speaks to privilege -- most notably what we might call ecological privilege -- and its ugly flipside, disadvantage.
Moreover, the climate-destabilizing effects of air travel -- per passenger mile -- dwarfs that of other modes because of the enhanced climatic "forcing" it brings about: due to the height at which planes fly combined with the mixture of gases and particles they emit, conventional air travel detrimentally impacts global climate approximately 2.7 times more than that of its carbon emissions alone, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Yet it is striking how little one hears about this from those involved in environmental and social justice work.
Opinion varies as to what is a sustainable level of carbon emissions per capita were the "right to pollute" allocated equitably among the world's human inhabitants. What they all suggest is that flying and a sustainable lifestyle are at fundamental odds.
It seems that too many environmental and social justice advocates think they should be exempt from reducing their aviation-related footprint because their work is important. The continue their airborne ways because they don't see "realistic" alternatives, and, perhaps, more importantly, because they can.
It is not that the exercise of privilege can't be put to good use, but such action always and inherently also brings about injury. So the question we have to grapple with individually and collectively is, does the resulting good compensate (at the very least) for the harm, while laying the groundwork for eliminating the system of privilege and disadvantage -- what ultimately, from a social and environmental justice perspective, has to be the goal of progressively minded folks?
As Bill McKibben argues in his book Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough Planet, Internet-related communication can and must serve as the substitute "trip" for the jet travel that climate change and falling oil supplies no longer permit.
And if it was so important that I go "there" in person, I should have, and could have in most instances, taken the time to travel slowly and on the Earth's surface.
By challenging our own ecological privilege and working to find less environmentally destructive methods of connecting with others, we lessen our complicity in racism, imperialism, and other malignant "isms" that disproportionately harm peoples and places on the national and global margins. We also show others -- activists, friends, and family members who fly unhesitatingly -- that not only is another world possible, but also some of what needs to be done to bring about that world.
Read the whole article here:
Flying is the single most ecologically costly act of individual consumption. Can we kick the habit, or at least cut back?
You're in a hurry, and for good reason. You -- or people you identify with -- have to catch a flight to somewhere like Cochabamba, Detroit, London, Montreal, or Washington, D.C. You're off to participate in a mass mobilization, a social forum or a meeting, to protest, to exchange ideas, to investigate, to bear witness or demonstrate your solidarity. These gatherings are a manifestation of, and contributor to, exciting and important efforts of social and environmental justice activists, advocates, analysts and organizers struggling to build a better world.
Given the political and intellectual energy these get-togethers embody and help to spur on, the allure to participate by flying "there" is undeniable. They provide valuable opportunities for networking, debate, discussion, protest, and organization- or movement-building. They also speak powerfully to the willingness and ability of many to expend significant resources to advance weighty causes.
Such long-distance engagement also illustrates the scale of the challenges humanity faces. Indeed, the institutions and individuals who give rise to our most pressing problems typically exercise great mobility and exert their power in a manner that shows little regard for territorial limits. Accordingly, those of us who want to contest what they do often must labor across long distances to enable and strengthen relationships with others. And a common way we from the relatively wealthy parts and sectors of the planet do so is by flying.
The exercise of this privilege flows from highly differentiated access to the world's resource base and helps to intensify the planet's