Must we quit flying to save the planet?

The Seattle Times ^ | 18 August 2007 | Mark Rice-Oxley, Christin Science Monitor

[Turret Gunner A20]

An environmental protester hugs a British police officer Saturday near London's Heathrow Airport. Organizers hope to attract as many as 1,500 people today to protest a proposed third runway at the airport and greenhouse gases released by air travel. LONDON — For the hundreds of climate-change activists who have camped out near Heathrow Airport for the past week, there is only one way to reduce the carbon footprint of aircraft: Stop flying so much. "Aviation is a luxury we can live without," said a protester named Merrick. Booming air travel, he said, is multiplying greenhouse gases just as the climate-change imperative starts to bite. "It has to be scaled right back," he said.

[Centurion2000]

For all you warmers out there, environmental activists (as the mainstream media likes to call them) are on their latest campaign to combat climate change – stop flying so much.

Kewl ... just took a 4500 mile road trip from Texas to Oregon and back again .... armed, packing, no TSA idiots and no baggage limits .... I can deal with this.

[OpusatFR]

“We are using up the last of the ancient caves just like we have almost used up the last of the ancient sunlight and winds...”

~and oxygen, don’t forget the ancient oxygen. Oh my!! And the melting glaciers and ice caps are releasing the last of the ancient oxygen!

Oh! The horrors!!!

[Ditter]

Last year we took two long driving trips. One from Houston to Montana and then from Houston to Las Vegas. We have driven from Houston to central Michigan 3 times. We love it. We grew up taking long driving trips with our parents in un air conditioned cars and before interstates. Our honeymoon was a driving trip to Key West Florida. We flew to Seattle and then put over 2000 miles on a rent car.

There is nothing like watching the country change and being under your own power, but travel when you are sick is a bummer.