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I think never traveling beyond a 30-mile radius is more detrimental to society as a whole than an occasional flight. After all, a carbon offset for a round-trip

by nrb 8y ago

I think never traveling beyond a 30-mile radius is more detrimental to society as a whole than an occasional flight. After all, a carbon offset for a round-trip cross-country commercial flight is about $10 which can at least mitigate that impact.

justinator 8y ago
> I think never traveling beyond a 30-mile radius is more detrimental to society as a whole than an occasional flight You know when you travel by plane, you fly over most of the terrain you might have encountered if you took a bicycle? What's more detrimental now? Twain wrote, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." But read his books, and you'll see how he traveled: slowly. > a carbon offset for a round-trip cross-country commercial flight is about $10 You can't buy yourself out of your contribution to CO2 in the air. That $10 doesn't remove anything. It buys piece of mind, and the hope that things in the future may be better. For now, the world keeps warming. There's no capitalistic mechanism invented yet that's going to change that.
- stephengillie 8y ago
  Walking across the United States is a slightly-uncommon and somewhat historic hobby. It can be done in under 300 days.
- nrb 8y ago
  I was referring to cultures experienced and perspective gained more than terrain covered. Most people today cannot afford to travel as slowly as he had the great fortune of doing. I agree that a carbon offset doesn't absolve you of responsibility, but like everything in life, it's tradeoffs.
- Dylan16807 8y ago
  > You can't buy yourself out of your contribution to CO2 in the air. That $10 doesn't remove anything. It buys piece of mind, and the hope that things in the future may be better. For now, the world keeps warming. There's no capitalistic mechanism invented yet that's going to change that. What's so complicated about "tax people that produce CO2, pay people that capture CO2"?
usaar333 8y ago
> After all, a carbon offset for a round-trip cross-country commercial flight is about $10 which can at least mitigate that impact. That uses an offset price of $7/ton, which seems rather low. Otherwise, offsetting the world's emissions would be only about $200b a year (.2% of world economy)
- Dylan16807 8y ago
  $10 per ticket, not per plane.
  - usaar333 8y ago
    I'm using 1.5 tons/ticket. Source: https://co2.myclimate.org/en/flight_calculators/new https://co2.myclimate.org/en/flight_calculators/new
    - Dylan16807 8y ago
      You're right, I got the wrong number.
    - nrb 8y ago
      That site appears to be changing tons per ticket based on flight class to try to capture a higher donation.
      - usaar333 8y ago
        That's simply because higher classes occupy more space and thus proportionately are responsible for a higher percent of emissions. https://www.myclimate.org/fileadmin/myc/files_myc_perf/12_flight_calculator_documentation_EN.pdf https://www.myclimate.org/fileadmin/myc/files_myc_perf/12_fl...
- nrb 8y ago
  I pulled that number from http://co2offsets.sustainabletravelinternational.org/ua/offsets http://co2offsets.sustainabletravelinternational.org/ua/offs... which takes into account origin and destination, any additional legs, and month of the year. SFO -> JFK direct round-trip in July for about 0.9 metric tons

by nrb 8y ago

justinator 8y ago

> I think never traveling beyond a 30-mile radius is more detrimental to society as a whole than an occasional flight You know when you travel by plane, you fly over most of the terrain you might have encountered if you took a bicycle? What's more detrimental now? Twain wrote, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." But read his books, and you'll see how he traveled: slowly. > a carbon offset for a round-trip cross-country commercial flight is about $10 You can't buy yourself out of your contribution to CO2 in the air. That $10 doesn't remove anything. It buys piece of mind, and the hope that things in the future may be better. For now, the world keeps warming. There's no capitalistic mechanism invented yet that's going to change that.

stephengillie 8y ago
Walking across the United States is a slightly-uncommon and somewhat historic hobby. It can be done in under 300 days.
nrb 8y ago
I was referring to cultures experienced and perspective gained more than terrain covered. Most people today cannot afford to travel as slowly as he had the great fortune of doing. I agree that a carbon offset doesn't absolve you of responsibility, but like everything in life, it's tradeoffs.
Dylan16807 8y ago
> You can't buy yourself out of your contribution to CO2 in the air. That $10 doesn't remove anything. It buys piece of mind, and the hope that things in the future may be better. For now, the world keeps warming. There's no capitalistic mechanism invented yet that's going to change that. What's so complicated about "tax people that produce CO2, pay people that capture CO2"?

usaar333 8y ago

> After all, a carbon offset for a round-trip cross-country commercial flight is about $10 which can at least mitigate that impact. That uses an offset price of $7/ton, which seems rather low. Otherwise, offsetting the world's emissions would be only about $200b a year (.2% of world economy)

Dylan16807 8y ago
$10 per ticket, not per plane.
- usaar333 8y ago
  I'm using 1.5 tons/ticket. Source: https://co2.myclimate.org/en/flight_calculators/new https://co2.myclimate.org/en/flight_calculators/new
  - Dylan16807 8y ago
    You're right, I got the wrong number.
  - nrb 8y ago
    That site appears to be changing tons per ticket based on flight class to try to capture a higher donation.
    - usaar333 8y ago
      That's simply because higher classes occupy more space and thus proportionately are responsible for a higher percent of emissions. https://www.myclimate.org/fileadmin/myc/files_myc_perf/12_flight_calculator_documentation_EN.pdf https://www.myclimate.org/fileadmin/myc/files_myc_perf/12_fl...
nrb 8y ago
I pulled that number from http://co2offsets.sustainabletravelinternational.org/ua/offsets http://co2offsets.sustainabletravelinternational.org/ua/offs... which takes into account origin and destination, any additional legs, and month of the year. SFO -> JFK direct round-trip in July for about 0.9 metric tons