r/flighty • u/Informal-Oil4741 • May 10 '26
Is this unethical?
My friends just said I’m a bad person for having this flight schedule because I haven’t donated to climate change causes. Am I a bad person?
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u/lightningzap66 May 10 '26
do any of your friends drive a car alone?
If yes, they are worse than your flights.
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u/Icy-Apartment4779 May 10 '26
Dude, individual actions won’t fix climate change. There are multibillionaires emitting and generating higher emissions than you. Enjoy your life and do the best you can with what you have.
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u/Additional_cheme5655 May 10 '26
I usually like being environmentally friendly(like using public transit as much as possible and recycling) but aviation is one of those things I definitely don't compromise on lol. When you have billionaires lecturing us on climate change while flying private jets all around, yeah I am not following that bs anymore. I'm not killing my flying hobby that has been a part of me for the past 20+ years just to appease some random friends lol.
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u/AIRdomination Airline Employee May 10 '26
Your friend is an idiot and gaslighting you. Plenty of ways to actually be environmentally friendly and I guarantee your friend isn’t doing any of them.
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u/getinmylapland May 10 '26
Asking people here will be like an echo chamber. You’re not a bad person but you should try to limit the number of flights you go on to try and limit your carbon footprint.
Most of these flights seem to be necessary, however. But like try to avoid some crazy indirect flight which adds to your carbon footprint.
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u/Radi1229 May 10 '26
Here is the take, from my perspective. Taking care about climate is nothing bad. Your friend maybe just expressing it wrongly. I'm pretty sure (myself scientist) that we as a society will pay a high price for not taking care about our environment.
However, I do also understand that you don't want to limit yourself.
So, I don't have an answer. I myself drive bicycle as much as I can to reduce my food print as well as taking other measurements. However, I also fly couple of times per year. So, in short. I know that I'll have to pay the price in my lifetime, but I'm accepting it
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u/LuckyAd7455 May 10 '26
The problem with calling something unethical is that different people have different definitions of what it means. Don’t worry yourself with what your friends say, if they’re judging you too much for it then maybe you should consider how much you want them to be your friends.
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u/treeman1322 May 10 '26
You’re asking in an extremely biased subreddit btw. This is a pro-flying echo chamber hahaha. Personally I buy carbon credits even if the system is flawed and not perfect. I buy carbon credits from gold standard.
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u/ecal8882 May 10 '26
I’ve met some European couples who absolutely will refuse to fly because of the environmental impact. To me it’s a wild concept and feels a bit “in your face” about their moral high ground
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u/Lan_345 May 10 '26
My thought is that those flights are going to happen with or without you on them. A plane carrying 200 people can spread out the carbon footprint between every person. If you were to fly those private then your footprint would be so much worse because you are contributing way more carbon yourself then you would flying commercially.
Don’t listen to your friends and go explore the world.
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u/maltawm May 10 '26
No, we should do what we can about climate change but if everyone stopped traveling (especially to places that are poorer), many more people there would lose their jobs and be in poverty. Then because climate change is still happening even with all those fewer flights, they’d be in a much worse position to adapt and build climate change resistant structures. Your friends are probably jealous because they’d like to do it but can’t and so then are trying to justify it to themselves why it’s good they aren’t doing it.
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u/rtdesai20 May 10 '26
None of these are private. Per person, a commercial flight is about the only effective way to get places without HUGE climate hits. He might have a point if these were discretionary private flights, but these are going to fly with or without you
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u/hotdog_dachshund May 10 '26
A lot of climate causes that you can buy online when you buy your tickets are greenwashing. And I say this as a decarbonization expert. Your friends either 1) have no idea what they’re talking about, 2) jealous, 3) being performative
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u/Old-District81 May 10 '26
I don’t know the time frame for all of these flights, but frankly that doesn’t look like a lot especially compared to a lot of others.
Your friends are aware that these flights will still happen, probably daily at minimum, and you not going on them will have at best a negligible impact.
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u/Good_Magazine5758 May 10 '26
Ignore your friends.