Is it Wrong to Fly? - Glad You Asked S1

Air travel is a quintessential product of the fossil fuel era: It’s both highly convenient and difficult to replace with alternatives. Now as the impacts of climate change are becoming more urgent, a growing “flight shame” movement is prompting consumers to question their air travel. Glad You Asked host Joss Fong explores the ethical implications of flying in a world on the brink of crisis.

Key Sources:
Myclimate flight emission calculator

Observed Arctic sea-ice loss directly follows anthropogenic CO2 emission

Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle

Carbon Footprint Calculations for Average Americans

Share of airplane trips by American adults

Maps of Greenland Ice Sheet

This is how global warming is reshaping Greenland

Contrail cirrus radiative forcing for future air traffic

Hydrocarbon combustion

The year in aviation: Billions of passengers, two high-profile accidents

Boeing CEO: Over 80% of the world has never taken a flight.

As Billions More Fly, Here’s How Aviation Could Evolve

According to the annual Airlines for America report, 48 percent of travelers in the United States flew on an airline in 2017.

Flygskam

Pipistrel Alpha Electro

Air Transport Action Group

0:00 Intro
1:12 Flying High
2:30 Our Carbon Footprint
9:45 Flight Shaming
12:10 Electric Airplanes
16:42 Batteries Vs Fuel

[rstainsbury]

You averaged 10 flights EACH in a single year for non-work trips?! That’s more than my lifetime total.

[ALilCrazyy]

I don't mean to sound like a nerd or anything, but a "square meter of ice" is absolutely meaningless. They should've used a volume unit of measurement like a cubic meter or liter.

[louie]

i’m sorry, so on average you guys each had 10+ flights a year that weren’t for work?

[Gethazzor]

I would've loved if they took the train or an alternative transportation to California. If you're reporting on more sustainable travel, it's a missed opportunity. You could've talked about the whole experience too and how mass flights have totally changed our perspective on distance and speed.

[engineeringMemellionaire]

I’m confused about why this was done in terms of square meters as opposed to cubic meters? Would be interesting to see this with context about the depth AND area of ice that has melted.

[callumfrancelees]

Calculation tool is missing 3 extremely important variables:

- the aircraft type your flying on
- the load factor of the aircraft your flying on
-amount of seating classes that the aircraft/airline operates

B737 MAX 8 uses 2.28L of kerosene per 100km (per passenger). Whilst it’s older brother the B737-800 uses 2.77L of kerosene per 100km (per passenger)

Both of these items are in a max seating config (200 seats for the MAX, 184 for the 737-800)

This means that it is better for the environment to fly a low-cost carrier (Ryanair or Southwest) as the CO2 emitted on these flights can be shared over more seats

[raffaelepiccini]

Why are you measuring the melted ice in squared meters? Ice is 3d object it should be cube meters.. I have no clue how to interprete that data like this

[rahulshivaram]

A critical part of this has been missed out: Flying is the most efficient fossil fuel process we have today. Your car has to do 150 mpg to do better than a jet engine (or 25 mpg with 6 passengers). If you replace flying with another fossil fuel engine than you're damaging the environment even more. ALSO IMPORTANT: All batteries have a 'theoretical maximum density' based on thermodynamics and so that line of improvement will not continue to go up. The most weight efficient cell on the horizon today is Lithium Sulphur - theoretical maximum 5 times higher than current Li-NMC bu 2.5 times in practice and tiny lifetime.

[avi]

Vox: flying is bad
Also vox: let’s fly across the country to talk to a guy for a couple of minutes

[aklaft]

All I hear is “we all must make sacrifices for the climate (except for stuff I like of course)”

[idoncae]

"Is it wrong to fly due to carbon emissions?"
*immediately flies 7000 miles to look at a well-documented airplane*

[TheLiamster]

Vox: Is it bad to fly?

Coronavirus: *YES*

[fearsomefawkes]

Looks like vox needs to look into why their people need to fly so much and to see if they can reduce that.

[lkenken]

Me who never flown or drivin and don't eat more than 10 kilo's of meat a year

Laughs in poor

[manualdidact]

84 flights between 4 people, in a single year, and HALF were work related? So, the other half were personal? I'm a software developer in my mid 40s, I'm not wealthy but I'm not poor either ... I can't even begin to identify with a lifestyle that involves SO MUCH leisure air travel. "Right" or "wrong", you folks need to realize your lives and your use of air travel are not normal. If this feels normal to you, it's time to step out of your bubble.

[rsmo]

I love how you guys use the blanket, the iron weights and the scaled models to show data. Really helps to understand the concept

[urspicyasian]

, imagine being one of the people who got a small donated blanket that says“M E A T”

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

Me: I want to travel
VOX: I FLY 40 TIMES A YEAR AND YOU SHOULDNT

[stayfrosty]

Vox: "Is it wrong to fly?"

Aviation Enthusiasts: "So you have chosen death."

[sean-jskb]

Is it wrong to fly?

me and other people that are into aviation: *this is going to hurt...*