How was it when you went?
—Good. Green and pleasant. You?
Quite good. Red bricks, rain, rock and roll. Reminiscent of New England.
—Well, it is Old England.
We saw it differently, didn’t we?
—Certainly reacted differently.
What more could I have done? It’s an ocean away. The ‘pond.’
—Some ‘pond.’ 5500 klicks! Nothing’s worse for the atmosphere than flying.[1]
I wasn’t a popstar, it was for school.
—It’s a metric tonne. Weekend holidays tripled it. That flight to Paris? 90% less CO2 by train, checking’s easy.[2]
Railway’s expensive. Why villainize air travel? It frees people.[3] We couldn’t have even gone without it. Hell, if two people never took a plane across the Pacific forty years ago, you’d never be alive to cross the Atlantic now.
—That’s the cost that matters? What about the places and the people we leave behind? The island Dad grew up on is sinking under the Philippine Sea.[4] Wildfires burn Toronto skies red. [5] People still seek refuge from the onslaught of climate change, and they don’t all get to fly to safety. I’m saying we have a choice, a choice the guys in small boats don’t get.
Things are getting better anyways. Manchester’s a coal town but Britain isn’t smog-shrouded anymore.
—Not gone, and only because somebody did something.[6] Ordinary people acted and things got better. Don’t rest on someone else’s laurels.
Always holier-than-thou. What’s so bad with just living, studying, seeing the world? We love travel equally. Understanding other peoples is a road to peace.[7]
—But we can’t make the world a desert and call it peace. I know you love fish and chips…
You do too…
—…but there’s scarcely codfish anymore between Newfoundland and Newcastle. We’ve seen fishing towns on both coasts barren. Tragedy of the commons. You think it’s no difference to take more for yourself, but if everybody does it, we’re left with nothing.[8]
You can’t do-no-harm your way through everything. You went vegan? No Sunday roasts?
—More food there’s “suitable for vegetarians” than in Canada. Plus, there’s Too Good to Go. It’s easy with effort. Maybe choose a chippy cause of the MSC certification![9]
Don’t act so perfect.
—I’m not. I got more wrong than I liked. Just get the little things right. That rainjacket you got for the Lake District? Could have gotten it secondhand, through Vinted. Or joined the Litter Pick there, we’d have needed you.[10] You almost bought that used bike from the co-op instead of Ubering everywhere. Better for you and the city.[11]
It’s not all my fault. It’s corporate greed! Government policy!
—Yeah, but it’s still our responsibility. All of ours. We went to England for an education. Haven’t you learned nothing gets better until we do?
References:
[1]gov.uk/government/publications/greenhouse-gas-reporting-conversion-factors-2022
shorturl.at/JZlzx
[2]ecopassenger.org; SDG 13, Climate Action
[3]SDG 1, No Poverty
[4]icsc.ngo/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/VSU_SOE_Final_Web.pdf
[5]climateinstitute.ca/news/fact-sheet-wildfires/
[6]london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/environment-and-climate-change/environment-and-climate-change-publications/70-years-great-london-smog; SDG 7, Affordable/Clean Energy
[7]SDG 16, Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
[8]sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/a-tragedy-with-no-end/; SDG 14, Life Below Water
[9]pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9188860/; msc.org/uk/sustainable-fish-and-chips-uk-ireland
[10] friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/event/great-cumbrian-litter-pick/
[11] https://davidsuzuki.org/living-green/the-environmental-cost-of-fast-fashion/; friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/event/great-cumbrian-litter-pick/
[12] SDG 3 Good Health/Wellbeing; 11 Sustainable Cities/Communities
