We Need to Travel Less!

Simon Jenkins (journalist) opines about modes of travel and their contributions to climate change. He notes that some people think the solution is very simple. Air travel produces more 'greenhouse gases' per passenger than travelling by train. Short-haul air travel is also substantial cheaper than taking a train. The solution they say, is to increase the taxes on air travel and pass on the money to the rail services to use for subsidies (if, of course, they are not siphoned off to reward shareholders). QED (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/11/train-plane-climate-crisis-travel-transport). Jenkins points out, however, that any additional subsidies for rail travel, would largely benefit the well-heeled. Poorer people tend to use buses or motor vehicles. Interestingly, Jenkins suggests that, if a car running on diesel or petrol has 4 occupants, the amount of 'greenhouse gas' per passenger, is about the same as that for a train passenger. One should note that, in the UK, quite a large percentage of travel by air or rail, is undertaken by a relatively small sector of its population. Sadly (travel was an activity I greatly enjoyed in former times), I have to agree with Jenkins that, to help solve the climate crisis, people need to travel much less (by air, car or train). Infrastructure needs to be redesigned to encourage people to stay 'local' for much of their time. Providing accommodation close to a place of work and/or home working could be helpful. At the moment, the 'travel industry' is untramelled in its attempts to boost post pandemic travel. Government seems totally relaxed about this.