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  • Well, it's not hugely surprising that, having flown in, she's flying out again (and quite openly, too).

    Obviously, I think she should have saved herself the trip and instead put out a supportive statement. but singling out individuals isn't going to help here, even if it's a celebrity. While the constant ability of celebrities to fly all over the shop and appear wherever product is to be promoted or concerts to be held at the drop of a hat is most definitely a main cause of why non-celebrities find how they perceive this kind of lifestyle very appealing and aspire to it, the real problem is seated still deeper and lies in the attitude that as we're modern people, we have to fly because we have all those great machines and these highly-trained people to fly them, yada yada.

    Sure, Emma Thompson should practise what she preaches, but there are very few celebrities who've put their heads above the parapet on this, hardly any, in fact (someone's going to be along in a moment with a long list of supportive celebrities, I'm sure), and effectively accusing her of hypocrisy (I don't think she was being hypocritical, as she was open about it, just short-sighted and inconsistent) is merely the exception that affirms the rule, that most celebrities wouldn't support this cause (yet) and if they do, they'll be hypocrites, hence the status quo is resoundingly re-established.

    I also don't think that flying economy class (difficult for someone famous, anyway) makes a huge great difference to flying first class. Flying is the problem, full stop, and making distinctions in that is a distraction.

  • I also don't think that flying economy class (difficult for someone famous, anyway) makes a huge great difference to flying first class.

    About fives times the emissions per head. So it certainly does.

  • You shouldn't quote selectively when it generates a misleading impression. I said: 'Flying is the problem.' I'm obviously well aware of all these emissions/'carbon footprint' calculations. For the most part, they lead people into fallacies, as they are way too simplistic (and that, incidentally, is also a reason why they are resisted by a lot of people--who often can't put their finger on why, but one of the reasons is simply the large number of fallacious arguments that occur in the public sphere).

    Far more people fly economy/standard class than people who fly first class. The planes are in the air mainly because of economy flyers. Overall, there's no great difference in their contribution to the problem, never mind how much responsibility you can assign to each flyer. As I said, don't single out individuals for particular criticism here. You can sometimes do that productively, but here the problem is, purely and simply, with flying itself.

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