SHOW NOTES

Flight shame is dead. Despite a brief pause during COVID, global aviation emissions hit record highs in 2024 and are projected to double by 2040. What makes this different from other climate issues? The staggering inequality. The richest 1% of people are responsible for 50% of aviation emissions, while 80% of the world's population has never even been on an airplane. Think of it this way — every cross-country flight melts a grave-sized chunk of Arctic ice, yet we have half a million people in the air at any given moment worldwide.

The technology promises are mostly fantasy. Sustainable aviation fuels account for less than 0.1% of current fuel use. Electric planes can barely carry four passengers 100 miles. Hydrogen requires massive amounts of renewable electricity we don't have. What that means is the aviation industry uses future tech promises to justify present-day expansion — like a tobacco company promising healthy cigarettes by 2050 while doubling production. The uncomfortable truth?Even with miraculous breakthroughs, emissions will still double because flight growth outpaces any efficiency gains.

Here's what really gets disturbing — the psychology of justification reveals why we're failing at climate action. People rationalize flying with cultural exchange arguments, bogus carbon offsets, and business necessity claims. Consequently,we've created "last chance tourism" where people fly to Antarctica to see climate change before contributing more to climate change. The big lesson for us? If wealthy people won't give up vacation flights — literally the easiest climate action to take — what hope do we have for the harder stuff like decarbonizing agriculture or manufacturing?

GOING JET-FREE: Alternatives to Flying

A CALL TO ACT: Comprehensive Database of Eco-Solutions

Trumping Trump

Episode Webpage

SHOW NOTES

The summer vacation isn't just leisure—it's become deeply woven into how we think about happiness and success. For generations, we've chased sunshine and escape as rewards for hard work, proof we've "made it," and increasingly, as pressure valves for modern stress. But what happens when our collective desire for paradise starts destroying the very places we seek? This episode explores how tourism transformed from elite privilege to industrial-scale movement, and why climate change is now threatening the psychological foundation of modern leisure.

When locals in Barcelona started attacking tourists with water pistols, chanting "Tourists go home!", it wasn't random violence—it was a desperate cry for help from communities being destroyed by overtourism. With 1.3 billion international tourists flooding destinations that can't handle them, we're witnessing the collapse of entire neighborhoods, from Venice's medieval streets to Ibiza's parking lots where tourism workers sleep in their cars because every apartment has become an Airbnb.

This episode reveals the brutal economics behind your vacation: how the $1 trillion tourism industry displaces families, breaks city infrastructure, and extracts wealth while leaving locals with poverty wages and nowhere to live. From cruise ships dumping 17,000 passengers on tiny islands to digital nomads "dating" cities while pricing out residents, mass tourism has become a form of economic colonialism that loves places to death. But this destruction isn't inevitable—if the industry would do the one thing it refuses to consider: accept limits.

A CALL TO ACT: The World's Most Comprehensive Database of Eco-Solutions

Trumping Trump: Database of 200+ Organizations United in Blunting Trump.

Episode !09 (very informative) Webpage

This episode explores geo-engineering - humanity's most audacious attempt to technologically control Earth's climate systems. From injecting sulfur particles into the stratosphere to mimic massive volcanic eruptions, to the mind-boggling proposal of moving Earth's entire orbit, these planetary-scale interventions represent our species' ultimate expression of technological overconfidence.

The episode examines two main approaches: solar radiation management (essentially giving the planet sunglasses by reflecting sunlight) and carbon dioxide removal (directly pulling greenhouse gases from the atmosphere). Both require staggering industrial scales - equivalent to one Mount Pinatubo eruption every few years, or thousands of massive facilities removing billions of tons of CO2 annually.

We argue that instead of gambling on unproven planetary interventions that could lock us into permanent technological dependence, we should focus on distributed, democratic solutions that work with natural systems rather than attempting to dominate them.

A CALL TO ACT: The World's Most Comprehensive Database of Eco-Solutions

Trumping Trump: Database of 200+ Organizations United in Blunting Trump.

Episode 108 Webpage