Climate change activists push for quotas to limit how many flights people take – following calls for dogs to go vegan to reduce emissions

Climate activists are calling on airlines to introduce flight quotas, requiring travelers to travel long distances using ground transport instead.

Dr. Helen Hutchinson, social scientist and spokesperson for environmental group Flight Free Australia, believes flying should be banned completely until it is ‘safe’ or emission-free.

“It’s an individual action – it’s the worst thing you can do,” Dr Hutchinson said 3AW‘s Tom Elliott on Thursday.

‘A lot of that is due to the fact that we have prioritized air (travel). Many other countries have actually put the same amount of money into ground transport – like very good buses, very good trains – and we could have done the same in Australia.”

“If you look at what’s happening in Australia now, most of our long-distance trains have been privatised,” she continued.

Elliott then questioned the activist about time constraints, explaining that he gets a “week off at this time of year,” during which he spent six days with his family in Queensland.

‘If we had driven now, it would have been a two-day drive there and a two-day drive back, leaving only two days to enjoy it. That’s simply not possible,” he argued.

“Well, there are places in the world now where they’re asking employers to give people time to get to their destination. And you can go to Queensland by train,” Dr Hutchinson said.

The presenter then interrupts Dr Hutchinson and notes that it still takes two days to get to Queensland by train, to which the activist simply replies: ‘Yes, I just did it.’

“What I’m suggesting is maybe you could ask for four extra days so you can get there and back,” she added.

Modern Australia could not exist without flying, Elliott replied.

“The Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane air corridor is one of the busiest in the world and people want to be able to commute and fly between the cities,” he said.

‘A lot of modern things and so on work because of that. You’re just saying we shouldn’t do that?’

Dr. Hutchinson said their call was an example of how long-distance communications are available in other forms, with many businesses turning to video calling platforms after the pandemic.

“It’s not hard to change your behavior if you just look at the other options, and what we encourage people to do is just look at the other options,” she continued.

‘I studied in the UK and every few years I like to visit old friends. Am I allowed to do that or is that not allowed?’ Elliott then asked.

“I am not making a choice for you, nor am I making a choice for the people who joined Flight Free Australia who have made a choice not to fly until it is safe to do so,” the activist said.

“One of the big problems with emissions is jet fuel, and aviation is one of the few industries where we don’t have an alternative energy source.”

Elliott then asked whether Flight Free Australia would prefer if long-haul journeys resumed using ships, regardless of the long journey times.

The activist did not respond, but quietly asked ‘does this sound good?’

‘Not really. I don’t have time for it,” he laughed.

‘I don’t have time to travel on a ship for two weeks to get there. I don’t think the world is like that.’

“I think we need to look at the alternative,” Dr. Hutchinson said.

‘We’re effectively living in a climate emergency right now, and every little bit of emissions we can possibly save, we really need to do. It’s not a matter of what we would like to do, it’s a matter of what we should do.’

Commercial flights have long been a point of contention for climate change activists, with Jean-Marc Jancovici proposing a universal quota on air travel earlier this year.

The French engineer and climate activist said people should be limited to four long-haul flights in their lifetime to mitigate climate change.

The call to restrict flying comes after environmentalists were criticized this week after suggesting dogs should become vegan.

Research from the University of Winchester found that cats and dogs consume around 9 percent of all land animals killed for food – around 7 billion animals per year – as well as billions of fish and aquatic animals. The guard reported.

If all the world’s dogs went vegan, it would save more greenhouse gas emissions than those produced by Britain, it would free up a larger landmass than Mexico and more freshwater than all the renewable freshwater in Denmark, and it would employ around 450 million extra people to feed. , the study claimed.

If all the cats in the world went vegan, it would save more emissions than those produced by New Zealand, the country would be bigger than Germany, Jordan’s freshwater would exceed all renewable freshwater, and it would feed about 70 million more people .

The revelation was deemed ‘tragic’ by cartoonist Johannes Leak on Thursday evening.

“(Dogs) don’t get much out of life, it’s all about meat and walks, you know, and they even want to take the meat out of the diet,” he shared Sky News host Chris Kenny.

‘It’s just tragic. It goes way too far.’