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Comment on YSK that apart from not having a car, the single greatest thing you can do for the climate is simply eating less red meat

JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

Roughly true, but you’re eliding a very, very problematic activity into “travel”: aviation.

Per kilometer, flying is pretty carbon intensive (about the same as driving - basically: the extra efficiency of being packed into a tin can is offset by exponentially higher wind resistance at high speed). The problem is that airplanes allow you to burn up massive distances really quickly.

A single transatlantic flight will blow a 2-ton hole in your personal carbon footprint. That’s 10-20% of an average European’s annual footprint - or 100% of a sustainable footprint. For anyone who flies more than once a year (i.e. likely a bunch of people here), cutting down on flying is likely to be the single biggest thing you can do for the climate.

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PlaidBaron@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
People always conveneintly leave out flying. Flying is one of the single worst things you can do.

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- Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  i feel like flying is something you either do fairly regularly, or you haven’t even considered setting foot on a plane for 10 years.
  
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- LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  I find it really hard to give up, personally. If I didn’t fly I would basically never see my family.
  
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Jack@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Tonnes of CO2e, averages:

1.60 a roundtrip transatlantic flight 2.40 one year car use 58.60 one year for every child you have

Chart, Wynes et al. 2017
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- JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  That’s helpful. These estimates do tend to vary a bit depending on assumptions (type of plane or car, what occupancy etc). The 2t I quoted was slightly high. My point was that there’s no other way to emit 1 tonne in 6 hours.
  
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