Which means that no one has ever paid the true cost of their air travel -- the "nanny state" has offered it as one of the perks that are supposed to keep us worker ants loyal to the capitalist bosses. And it has worked great. I know more than one person whose instinctive response to carbon taxes, demand reduction, etc. is to squawk that they will give up all kinds of things, "but not air travel! how can I go see my cousin's wedding, how can I make a weekend visit to my old Mum, how can my kids have their ski vacation in Aspen, without cheap air tickets???" And the simple answer is "you can't / they can't." It was only the fast-forward beanfest of supercheap fossil fuel that made the brief vulgarisation of jet travel possible, and that historical moment is over. That was then, this is now.
Although I understand the appeal of cheap quick travel, and I feel some of the same panic at the thought of "narrowing our horizons" -- can we look around us and say honestly that the migration of bazillions of tourists and biz-jin all over the planet at lickety-split speed has, actually, created a more cosmopolitan, tolerant, culturally respectful international community? Seems like what it has really created is the destruction of local cultures, the proliferation of cookie-cutter corporate hotels and pseudo-ritzy resorts, franchise food outlets, etc. -- not to mention contributing to climate destabilisation, pollution of air and water, noise pollution (which has far more serious health consequences than one might think), more rapid spread of epidemics, etc. -- and then too, it's just one more reason to bomb Iraq and Iran and steal the oil. Does cheap air travel really broaden the mind, or is the "instant/convenient/ubiquitous" meme (so deeply embedded in it) far more powerful than any exposure to foreigners and foreign ways? Hasn't it made "the rest of the world" just something else to consume, in 3day, 4day, 5day, etc. packaged tours? I wonder. Television was going to bring "culture and the arts" into every home and make us all educated and Enlightened and smart; and look how that turned out. Cheap air travel was going to broaden our minds and help us to become respectful/conscious citizens of the global village, but has it?
Personally, I could care less if the aviation industry shoots self in foot and falls out of its tree. Its time has come, writing's on the wall. Bring back passenger rail, sez I. OK, I have to admit the views were really nice from up there, but maybe we could still do something with dirigibles at an energy cost that would be semi-sane...
Sigh... and to think that as a kid, I loved airports... The difference between theory and practise in practise ...
When do we get the Paris-Beijing HSR ? Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
Yes, they can. But not as a weekend trip. Maybe people will go back to taking their vacation time two weeks to one month at a time. And in the US that will force employers to take a more humane approach to vacation time, too. Too many people are afraid of taking more than one week at a time because their job might been given to someone else by the time they get back. That is the problem. Flying once a year or taking trains or boats is not the problem. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
