Well, that’s good, because less unhinged arguments. I love the way this starts
Choosing Not To Fly Home For The Holidays, For The Climate’s Sake
This year Thom Hawkins is missing his fourth family Thanksgiving back home in Minnesota, by choice.
The 82-year-old lives in Glendale, Calif., and hasn’t visited his extended family of nieces, nephews and cousins since September 2016. That’s when he decided he couldn’t fly anymore because of environmental concerns. Ever since, he has missed weddings, birthdays and graduations, and he expects to miss funerals.
“On the last trip there I felt guilty, if you want to know the truth,” Hawkins says. “I [had] become very aware of climate change … probably hyper-aware, more than most people that I know.”
He’s even told his family to no longer fly to California to visit him, as he doesn’t want them to contribute to climate change on his behalf. Hawkins is part of a small but growing number of people who are choosing not to fly, or to fly less.
So, for 80 years he had the good life, took flights, traveled, but, now he gives it up, and won’t even attend important times in the life of his family? Cult.
A group called Flight Free, which has members in at least 10 countries, and another called NoFlyClimateSci, claim more than 20,000 people around the world have signed different public pledges to not fly in 2020. There is an international push to raise those numbers by the end of the year.
“We’re trying to inspire climate action, and when people choose not to fly that’s one of the most immediate and direct and cheapest ways that people can help solve the climate crisis,” says Ariella Granett, who helped found Flight Free USA.
But, will they give up traveling in fossil fueled vehicles?
