I have read with satisfaction a possible idea for people to fly less. The idea has been contributed by Mark Harris in Anthropocene magazine, and I liked it for its simplicity, although I recognize that unfortunately it will never be launched.
All airlines have discount cards for their most loyal customers and offer them different discounts on their next flights. Nowadays, the more they fly, the cheaper the flights are.
Friend Mark's idea is to do just the opposite, to penalize those who fly the most, so that if you fly more, the flights are more expensive, so that you think about it a bit before taking another new flight.
Currently 1% of the world population generate 50% of the pollution generated by airplanes. Worldwide, those who fly are a minority, but some do it very continuously, and it would be a matter of costing them a little more expensive, so that they think a little about the real need for what they do.
The idea proposed by Mark Harris, also supported by the ICCT (International Council on Clean Transportation) would be to allow each person one flight a year without any type of surcharge. After the first flight, the second flight would have a $9 surcharge, the next $18, the next $27, and so on. The more flights, the higher the surcharge.
It is a simple and easy idea to carry out, but it will not be done. Because governments are more concerned with tomorrow's economy than with what is sure to happen in a few years.
Maintaining a certain current economic level is very important, because we all have to continue living, but we cannot continue living as if nothing had happened. Because it is happening, and we have clearly seen it this past summer with the extreme temperatures suffered throughout the world, and for this reason we must also take steps in the right direction to change our lifestyles.
Today, 90% of flights are for pleasure. People do them because they like it and because they can pay for it, without thinking of any subsequent consequences. And if anyone thinks a bit, airlines use "Green Washing" to cheat them with CO2 offsets.
Recently, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) reached an "aspirational" agreement to become carbon neutral by 2050. And it is an agreement without objectives and only with one wish, which everyone knows will not be fulfilled. But they have gotten by with a document of intent, which will come to nothing over time.
As a Society, our "problem" is that the vast majority of people are not aware of the problem that we have before our eyes. And sometimes I even have doubts about whether I'm wrong.
But the data is what it is. The CO2 situation in the atmosphere is getting worse, and we will see the consequences more and more clearly.
And the question is: Until when are we going to look the other way?
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