The litmus test- our love for the earth

If your children or their spouse are not flying back for Chinese New Year, they may have a valid reason or excuse, to save the earth. It is estimated that a person on a round trip flight from New York to Paris pumps about 2.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As a comparison a person in a developed country generates an annual carbon footprint of about 7 tonnes a year through electricity usage, ground transportation and waste disposal. Just by travelling 3 times a year, a person would have committed a carbon sin twice the norm. This is really sad to hear for any one who loves to travel and for retirees who look to travel to create some zing in their life. Our love to experience new places will now be underlined with a sense of guilt.

Baby boomers are already slapped with accusations for ruining the earth, first with our insatiable desire to own material things proliferating consumerism and ballooning into excesses. The 'out with the old'  mentality created waste and throwaways polluting the earth and depleting the world's resources. When tired of possessing things we moved onto gaining new experiences, hence the boom in air travel. This is made easier with competing offers from airlines.

If air travel continues to grow and the effects of climate change and global warming become prevalently disastrous a day will come when airlines will be struck with an emission tax. This will translate into higher cost for air travel which will rein in the damage to the environment.

For many of us, the litmus test for our love of the earth is to restrict holiday air travel . It's indeed a very hard call, failing which a sense of guilt will linger somewhere at the back of our minds even when taking in the beauty of a landscape overseas.