Thread by @DoctorVive

@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen Hi Jon,

my apologies for taking so long to reply to your question. I was solo-parenting today.

Anyhow, I have a very long answer for you. One of these days I should write something about this, but for now lots of tweets...

@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen I think you're right that aviation has become a domain for virtue signaling. But also I think it still encapsulates real issues that the climate movement must grapple with.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen I think there are two different contexts in which to consider these issues. The first is that of the climate movement. What should be expected from people who publicly declare that we must stop emitting GHGs and who try to move our culture and politics to that goal?

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen My opinion is that people in the climate movement should do everything they can to reduce their own personal emissions.

I am persuaded by the research showing that our doing so increases our public credibility and inoculates us against the charge of moral hypocrisy.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen I also believe that reducing our personal emissions gives extra (and necessary) force to our argument that only political action leading to systemic change will solve the climate crisis.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen The "we need systemic change" argument is weakened considerably insofar as it seems like self-justification for continuing to enjoy high-carbon pleasures.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen Ask your gut: would Greta Thunberg have so galvanized the world if she had flown around Europe to deliver her speeches?

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen That said, Glen is also clearly right: being able not to fly depends on a number of contingencies. Many people have to fly for work or to see family.

Many climate leaders have to fly. Should Jay Inslee, for example, not fly while he's campaigning for president? Surely not.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen Should island nations send their delegates to the COPs by boat? Perhaps not be the best use of their resources. But delegates of high emitting nations? Absolutely, they should travel to the COPs emitting the least GHGs as possible. Climate justice from the get-go, I say.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen And the political is the personal & visa versa. If flying were a country, its emissions would be sixth largest in the world. And out of the entire population, only 1.5% of us are responsible for the majority of aviation emissions. Flying is climate injustice full stop.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen I think considering questions of climate justice in one's personal practices should be encouraged or even normalized. And who else is going to do that work but people in the climate movement?

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen As for the argument that calling for the end of unnecessary flying hurts the climate movement because it plays into the hands of the fossil fuel industry...

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen I can see how the ff industry / denial machine wants to keep everyone's attention on consumption rather than the managed decline of the ff economy, and I agree it's tricky to be talking about personal behavior change in a public forum for that reason.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen But I think climate twitter is more of a bubble than it seems, and there is a gap between the conversations and debates to be had here and our communication to the general public. (The general public sphere being the second context in which to consider this issue.)

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen I never try to persuade my friends, my colleages outside of the climate movement, or the audiences for my talks that they should stop flying. Never.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen Not only because it's a shocking idea for people who have yet to be mobilized, but also because the *only* worthwhile public message IMHO is that everyone needs to take actions that demand and attempt to force *political* and *institutional* change.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen But if I am asked I say that I have committed to not flying, and I say why: once I understood that emitting GHGs is fatally dangerous, I felt a kind of categorical imperative to emit as little of them as possible...

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen ...even though the reduction of my own personal emissions of GHGs won't make any *quantitative* difference overall.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen Let me say right away that I have failed in my commitment by flying to Pittsburgh to give a paper beccause I didn't have time to take the train for family reasons, and...

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen I flew once w my son and will again until he's old enough to tolerate the idea of how dangerous climate change might be and why his entire world needs to change. He already knows why we have to cut back (from 8 flights a year to once in 3 years); that's enough for now.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen So it's complicated, I fuck up all the time, my motherhood conflicts with my activism, we're all human.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen But I am tortured by the question: if we need to bring our emissions down to net zero in 30 years, and the tech for net zero flight is not there yet, everyone is going to need to stop or curtail their flying at least temporarily, no? So why not start now?

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen And I will acknowledge that sometimes I speak too harshly and admit that I do so because it hurts me, makes me feel most despondent and hopeless, when the people who understand climate change the best are no more willing to give up flying than anyone else.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen I know lots of people dislike me for the way I talk about flying. And I see that flying is becoming an increasingly contentious issue.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen But as far as wedges go, I think that not grappling w the problem, but dismissing or subtweeting w barely concealed contempt people who express dismay about flying is also pretty divisive.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen That said, I realize that nearly everyone I respect and who has devoted their life to this problem disagrees with me. I know that the people who disagree with me want the climate movement to succeed and the world to decarbonize.

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen I just passionately believe that we are more likely to succeed if we signal the urgency with our actions, unite the word with the deed, and also...

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@GlobalEcoGuy @keya_chatterjee @MichaelEMann @Peters_Glen show that life is absolutely beautiful, and meaningful, and interesting, and rewarding, and that people can be successful and have amazing experiences, without needing to spew plumes of carbon dioxide into the sky or, really, ever get on a plane.

/fin