‘SAFE to fly” – a new mantra that is repeated continuously. Where can the delusional, ignorant, self-obsessed populace fly to safely? All our media, including this paper, never mention that the real answer is “nowhere”.

Has nobody learned anything? The pandemic should have given our Anthropocene world leaders a clear vision of an opportunity to re-evaluate “recovery”, if and when Covid-19 is brought under better control. “Recovery” is being bandied about as a desirable objective where our global exploitation can not just get back to what it was, but to be increased apace. Every politician can hardly resist giving a sound-bite to camera without at least once referring to a “growth” – that only relates to economic growth.

Do they all lack the vision to see where this leads? Never once does any journalist call them out to interrogate them as to how such growth is sustainable, given the world’s richest countries already having gone well past the exploitation of the planet’s finite resources that is justifiable or could be continued.

How many of our populations are duped by the gormless notion that we could exploit or even populate other planets or moons in the solar system to ameliorate the effects of over-exploitation of Earth? Perhaps they are the same huge cohort that think “I’m all right, Jack” – or perhaps part of the even larger group of completely apathetic people.

Who am I pointing my finger at? If the cap fits, you should be wearing it with shame. I and my family acknowledge that we ourselves need to be doing more. We need more regression, more retrenchment. We need less consumption and much, much less reliance on fossil fuels. We need to see much, much more education devoted to developing a citizenry that will work to reduce human impact on the planet.

Politicians that commit and enact legislation for such education and real climate reduction measures are an absolute necessity.

What policies might be included? How about an individual carbon allowance? Professor Zubov has written that life monitoring/controlling computer algorithms already exist. A meat/red meat allowance? Professor Lang has recently published “Feeding Britain” that explains how the UK suffers food insecurity, with so much land dedicated to feeding ruminants. Yes, we all need to change and change now to much greater reliance on plant and locally produced vegetable consumption.

How about an effective tax on advertising? It is not beyond our wit to write rules that identify products that can be deemed to be completely unnecessary and make advertising of such subject to tax – perhaps twice the stated production/distribution/retail costs. I watched this morning on TV an advertising executive puffing about the need to increase advertising to recover “growth”.

So, before you discuss with your friends whether it is safe to fly, rub your eyes, wake up, and check this precious planet that we and all life forms cling to. Living in this still wondrous country of Scotland, you really don’t need to fly anywhere, except for a very few reasons that might be deemed vital to future human existence.

Will this affect thousands of people involved in airline transportation and the travel sector? Undoubtedly. Again, interrogation of politicians, might help focus their minds on critical steps to adapt our society for mitigation of the disruption and change that we should all undergo.

Keith MacLeod

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