You are reading a single comment by @branwen and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
branwen
mespilus
You should feel guilty about flying to see your parents to shave a couple of days of travel off your holiday. You should feel guilty about eating lamb just because you feel like it. Your friend should feel guilty for producing more emissions than 50 people with normal jobs (is he so important?). It's most likely people in poor nations in decades to come who will bear the cost of your decisions and they don't have a say in what you choose to do. You are picking the "selfish enjoyment" option and expecting someone worse off to pay the price. How could you not feel guilty about that?
(Not that there's anything wrong with doing something for selfish enjoyment. Simply staying alive is selfish enjoyment at the world's expense unless you are somehow directly responsible for reducing the severity of climate change by more than you increase it.
But it has to be in moderation. Like eating 4 Easter eggs in a day, you feel a bit guilty, but recognise it's a rare occasion and is not sustainable to go on the same way all the time.)
Christ I am an insufferable bore.