Al Gore and Leonardo Di Caprio fly private jets all the time. Not sometimes, but always and very often. This is equivalent of Mahatma Gandhi driving among the people in the Rolls Royce to deliver his message!
1500 Private Jets Fly to Davos for Climate Talks
11–20 of 168 posts
Re: 1500 Private Jets Fly to Davos for Climate Talks
#12The solution should include a carbon tax or fee to make such behavior uneconomical. Could Switzerland impose a carbon fee upon landing a private aircraft at a Swiss airport?
Re: 1500 Private Jets Fly to Davos for Climate Talks
#13This is such a beautiful example. We all want change, but giving up modern conveniences is so hard. We might mock the people and their private planes but I don’t doubt someone would mock me for my cars, central air conditioning, etc.
I thought to myself: "Someone who cared could probably have got a train from most of Europe to Davos!"
Then I thought about the sort of people that go to these things, and how long the train takes. They're oh so terribly important (sarcasm), that they simply cannot afford the time lost by traveling in anything other than a jet.
And that I think is the problem - from the Davos-attendee right down to you and I with our cars + central heating/air-con: we all want things to improve, but we also all value (consciously or otherwise) our own comfort/time/convenience more
"Well OF COURSE most people should take the train to Davos. Absolutely! Its the climate friendly choice! I had to take a jet though because I am very busy."
Re: 1500 Private Jets Fly to Davos for Climate Talks
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's defeatist. Small changes are not the only things that matter but saying "everything or nothing" is not helpful. The collective change that's needed to effect change begins with individual steps, like not taking a private plane when commercial will do.
Or even better- not flying at all and attending the conference virtually. Climate conferences and talks so frequently are held in resort towns- it should not be a getaway. Reserve some conference rooms and have everyone dial in! We have the technology.
Phone calls. Phone calls? Fix the world with phone calls?
It’s not enough to call people on the phone.
Re: 1500 Private Jets Fly to Davos for Climate Talks
#15> There appears to be a trend towards larger aircraft, with expensive heavy jets the aircraft of choice > This is partly due to the long distances travelled, he said, “but also possibly due to business rivals not wanting to be seen to be outdone by one another” I don't think we can expect anything substantive coming of a meeting like this. Has anything ever?
What normally comes from such meetings are policies aimed at curbing the consumption of the 80% of the population who control 20% of the resources. The upper 20% of the population (who control 80% of the resources) are very good at sparing themselves from hardship.
Re: 1500 Private Jets Fly to Davos for Climate Talks
#16The solution should include a carbon tax or fee to make such behavior uneconomical. Could Switzerland impose a carbon fee upon landing a private aircraft at a Swiss airport?
Well, since presumably the aircraft need to fly out, the simple thing would just be to tax fuel based on carbon emissions from burning it.
Re: 1500 Private Jets Fly to Davos for Climate Talks
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Air conditioning, at least, is a natural to pair with large grid connected photovoltaic setups. The times of the day when you'll have the heaviest AC compressor motor/fan motor load in watts is also when the sun is up. Look an hourly demand curve chart for a central air conditioned house in Sacramento in mid summer, vs watt-hours produced during the same hours of the same day by a rooftop 10kW size pv system.
Sounds like you dont live in Florida. :)
Meaning that even when the Sun is no longer shining, the dewpoint is so high that what might have been a comfortable temperature with a breeze is actually felt as oppressively hot and will cause all sorts of fun mold growing in the home.
In the Southeast, AC is also about dehumidifying the air.
Re: 1500 Private Jets Fly to Davos for Climate Talks
#18Also: "Just 90 companies caused two-thirds of man-made global warming emissions" https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/20/90-compa...
Individual behavior obviously matters but it's a drop in the bucket compared to corporate polluters.
Re: 1500 Private Jets Fly to Davos for Climate Talks
#19If they really cared, the most environmentally friendly way to hold Davos would be over video conference
Re: 1500 Private Jets Fly to Davos for Climate Talks
#20Also: "Just 90 companies caused two-thirds of man-made global warming emissions" https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/20/90-compa... Individual behavior obviously matters but it's a drop in the bucket compared to corporate polluters.
Aren't the customers of those companies also culpable?