Fighting Climate Change
We’re living through what has been one of the hottest years on record and are constant reports of extreme weather and dangerous flooding due to climate change. It’s all so overwhelming. What can a person do?
Let’s start by doing something easy: eliminating private jets.
According to “jet, set, go: the case for electric only UK flights from 2025” a 2019 report from the “Fellow Travelers” nonprofit, private jets are bad news.
“We contend that fossil-fueled private jets represent the nadir of carbon inequality and their persistent use in the context of the escalating climate crisis can no longer be justified, particularly in light of the social effects of these flights.” the report reads.
It’s time we stop looking at private jets as a symbol of luxury and start looking at them as gas guzzlers owned by the same selfish nincompoops who insult the wait staff, cheat on their taxes and park in disabled parking places when they are perfectly healthy.
Pictures of celebrities on private planes shouldn’t be something they promote; it should be something they are more embarrassed about than the unplanned release of a nearly forgotten naughty video. Last year Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott were publicly shamed after posting an image to Instagram showing both of their private planes, captioned “You wanna take mine or yours?” That sort of public shaming is a good start.
Instead, let’s bring back the private train car as the height of luxury for the super-rich. Trains are far more fuel efficient than private planes and Amtrak already has services for moving and parking your portable private palace. Think of it as traveling in your own steampunk time machine, maybe even in the same rolling hotel that President Taft used? What could be chicer than that?
Already doing your holiday shopping in the “fantasy gifts” selection of the Neiman Marcus catalog? Then get your sweetie a restored Pullman! I found a sweeeeeeeeeet one from 1914 with a movie-perfect rear observation deck perfect for a whistle-stop campaign!
If you aren’t an alleged private jet abuser like Taylor Swift, Jay-Z or Kim Kardashian, there are things you can do on a smaller scale that can maybe help stave off the future bleakness portrayed in those dark science fiction films. And I’m not talking about throwing mashed potatoes or soup on famous paintings, just to draw attention to the idea of climate change, like some have been doing.
Instead you can make changes in your own world. I chatted with musician Big Wild when he played last year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival. We spoke about how touring and festivals are inherently wasteful, even with minor improvements like ACL finally switching to using sturdy plastic cups meant to be washed and reused.
Big Wild cut out plastic water bottles for his 10-person crew.
“You’ve got 10 people on the road, needing water every day, it ends up being a lot of waste,” he said about the water bottles. Big Wild is also trying to be ecologically progressive by wearing only vintage and thrifted clothing on stage, trying to sell band merchandise that will stand up to being used for many years and donating a percentage of his tour proceeds to charities with an ecological mission.
You may not be in a position to use your private jet less or have your crew stop using plastic water bottles, but if you are…do the thing.
