I’m all for fun and goodtimes.
But still, are we never gonna pull together for the good of all the earth?
I have learned that when I go somewhere, all I want to do is be home again, so now I just don’t go anywhere. I may miss out on some experiences, but at least I am happy, warm, safe, and can eat the food I like.
I appreciate that some folks suffer these problems.
Now I have an annual holiday in Las Vegas to see my friends there (it’s a 6,000 mile trip.)
I travel to the UK airport the night before and check in that evening. (There’s no queue and I sometimes get offered a seat upgrade. 
)
I stay in an airport hotel overnight, so I can have a leisurely breakfast the next morning and stroll to the airport (passing by all the check-in queues.)
I stay in a Vegas hotel recommended by my local friends (good value rooms - as I don’t gamble. 
)
When my return flight arrives in the UK, I use a ‘fast pass’ option to go to the head of the queue.
I hope you have safe travels and a wonderful visit!
We are gathered here in Georgia; son, two daughters, me and grandma, 5 of our grandchildren, 1 great granddaughter I hadn’t met yet (1 year old), and assorted husbands and wives. Holiday time is time off work so we can get together. We (family) extend from Hawaii to the east coast; Seattle to Texas, and other parts of the US. (Still more children, grandkids, greatgrand… not here).
Travel happens.
And sometimes even better when the holiday is a Tuesday or Thursday - my daughter and SIL and their kids (who live in NJ) are visiting his parents in Ohio this week. Someone clearly has to travel or else they would never see each other and since SIL has Thursday and Friday off from work, they can be gone 9 days with him only taking 3 vacation days.
I know family loves to be in the same place for a time when every one is available and free from work obligations.
I suppose the days are gone when families all lived in a close conclave. I yearn for the days when grandparents were right next door and Aunt Sue was down the road a piece. It just seemed a safer, happier way to be. Ahh, well…such as it is.
But. Travel for travels sake seems to me to be a frivolous waste of precious resources.
It’s like you look at your pile o’bucks and say, “ooh, I have these obligations paid, right now. I can go on a flight of fancy and waste monies not caring about future obligations”. Too bad, in just so many years, the air and water will be so poisonous some people will start suffering and earth will start dying, at a rate that may astound us.
I think personally I can give up a few trips and travel the same as I try to reduce, recycle and do the best I can, in my little way for the environment. I’d love to do more. I feel good we have a tiny tree farm here to replace what was logged out 25+ years ago. We have trees 15+ and 10 years old that we planted. Super pine, baby! They grow fast, straight and tall and won’t be logged, by us.
I’d rather have that than a leisurely breakfast in some hotel in an airport City I’m not all that familiar with and then flying across a half poisoned ocean to a foreign country and another City I’m not familiar with.
Nope. I’m staying home. Which I would do anyway, I suppose.
I think we should consider, more carefully, our choices today for the sake of tomorrow, as much as we can.
Okay. I’m down off my soap box.
Y’all just be safe.
If you want to do something good for the Earth, curtailing travel is NOT it. That’s a drop in the bucket.
Somebody who lives 10 miles farther from work than necessary creates more unnecessary carbon in a year’s work than they do flying to Europe and back.
Somebody who doesn’t have fully insulated windows, doors, walls and attic spaces wastes the energy equivalent of driving 20 miles a day every day.
These are changes that can pay rates of return of 50% APR for doing them. But people won’t do those things.
Curtailing travel, like unplugging wall-warts, is a stupid feel-good gesture that is worse than useless as it gives a false sense of accomplishment to the people who follow its misguided tenets. They’re patting themselves on the back for picking up a penny while setting $100 bills on fire with their other hand.
[Bolding mine.]
Not true, doncha know.
Statistically speaking, the most likely place to be in an accident is within a 20-mile radius of your home!
Dad joke
When I heard this statistic, I packed up and moved!
/Dad joke
Exactly.
My son was killed in a car accident on the Labor Day travel weekend 5 miles from home on a local road.
You can have both!
I have trees in my front and back garden that are over 50 years old and will no doubt be here for another 50.
As LSLGuy said, curtailing travel is a drop in the ocean. (And after all, if I didn’t fly to Vegas, the plane would still go there - just with one less passenger.)
I think travel broadens the mind and helps people understand different races, cultures and cuisines.
I think that if more people visited other places, they would be less likely to be taken in by nasty politicians who use fear and ignorance of ‘foreigners’ to get elected … then have policies that seriously damage the environment.
I recall reading about air pollution monitoring during and immediately after the pandemic, when travel of any kind was curtailed. Altho air was notably clearer around major cities (less particulates), scientists learned the amount of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere only slightly dipped, less than expected, and recovered to pre-pandemic levels easily once people started traveling again. I cannot find the article, but it supports what others are saying here that air travel isn’t really doing much damage here (compared to manufacturing and power generation), yet has the benefits of broadening people’s minds and helping us become more accepting of one another.
There was never a time when that was true for everyone - and there have been times and places where that was hardly true for anyone. I grew up in a big city with lots of immigrants - and although many people I know who were born there stayed in the vicinity for most of their lives, most of them had relatives in other countries. And I’m not talking “third cousins” , I’m talking grandparents and aunts and uncles. I was unusual in that some of my grandparents were born in the US - for most of my friends, their parents were the immigrants , either before or after my friends were born.
Would that that were true! Plenty of assholes flying to all corners of the earth!
I got some trees going in the ground about Friday, I think.
I’ll plant them in honor Dopers who travel this week.
You’re welcome!
Yep. It seems like you’re avoiding travel because you don’t enjoy it. And you think other people enjoying it is bad for the enviornment.
I don’t view traveling as a waste of money. (and we fly first class and stay in nice hotels). It’s what we have the money for. We just returned from a week in the San Juan Islands in Washington State. It was a wonderful time, and included a few great meals, some time on the waters (Whales!) and some nice relaxing beach hikes.
I never was much of a traveler. I have many fear phobias. Now that my diabetes is so fragile and dialysis 3 times a week it’s not even remotely possible to travel easily.
I’m happy you had a great time and got to see the whales.
In another place those whales are beaching themselves and dying due to loss of the food they need and encroaching man.
Yep. I’m happy for you. Not so much for the whales.
It’s clear your commitment to saving the environment is greater than mine. I salute you.
In the past 2 weekends, about 6 people died here due to flooding and landslides. They didn’t even have to go anywhere, the water came to them. Another one fell off a mountain and died.
Travel is how we learn about others and how to adapt. And for those of us who have never lived down the road from their grandparents, travel is the only way to see relatives.
I find travel planning more stressful than traveling. Once the reservations are made, it’s fairly relaxing. But then we’re often going to familiar places. That’s why I’m actually looking forward to flying through Newark. I know it, and I know what to expect. And then I get to visit my inlaws and eat Tasty Kakes and Entenmann’s chocolate doughnuts. Maybe I’ll even find egg nog.
All the flooding…
It’s gonna get worse.
I’m not a militant environmentalist. Good grief I can’t even help myself, much.
I just think all this holiday travel, in increasing record numbers is irresponsible. Maybe not in your immediate life, but soon there will be no one untouched and no where to hide.