The amount of conflict in the remarks is because both parties are right. It's very wonderful for Jeff Bezos to donate $10B dollars. But also it's right about private jets, which generate much carbon pollution.
It's fair to say that everyone has to do their part against climate problems. I for one make personal sacrifices yes. Less meat, less consuming, trying for local purchases as often as possible so the cheese I eat is not from France, driving a lot less, and also I fly much less. This year only one trip home instead of two.
For us to lift out of poverty many more people, it's worrying about the carbon costs of this. But now we have to behave smarter and people for whom sacrifices are easiest should make them first.
I recently did some calculations on car vs plane travel. For commuter flights, it surprised me to find out that for gasoline cars, car travel isn't better than a flight until you get to a carpool of four passengers. For electric cars, a solo driver is about the same as air travel (in an average airport flight) - a second passenger makes it better than air travel. (This was for a flight halfway across the country.)
So yeah, limiting long distance travel is the way to go. I just found it surprising because I think a lot of people might choose to drive instead of fly, thinking it's better for the environment - usually not unless you're carpooling.
Care to reproduce your calculations here? I'm certain you're off by a factor of 10 (at least). Flying is probably the worst thing you will do in your entire life as far as the environment is concerned.
Aviation Emissions, Impacts & Mitigation: A Primer
FAA Office of Environment and Energy
January 2015
Aviation stands out among transportation modes, however, in terms of improving fuel efficiency over the past decade. As shown in Figure 1: Comparison of Vehicle Fuel Efficiency, in 2004, automobiles and airlines operating in the U.S. had very similar energy intensities, with automobiles at 3,496 BTU/passenger mile versus airlines at 3,505 BTU/passenger mile. Between 2004 and 2012, auto energy intensity fell to 3,193 BTU/passenger mile, for an 8.8% improvement. For the same period, aviation energy intensity fell to 2,654 BTU/passenger mile, a 24.3% improvement and is now significantly lower than automobiles.
In addition to being more efficient flying is wildly safer. You have a 750x better chance of surviving a commercial flight than a car trip the same distance. (2000-2010)
This was literally a five-minute exercise with google queries and Calca, so I won't be surprised if you're right. For this trip I used 991 air miles, vs 1177 driving miles.
Co2PerMile = 53 (for a plane)
AirTravelMiles = 991
PeopleOnAirplane = 189 (average passengers per plane)
Or, very roughly, a plane is about 50 lbs/mile, and a car is 1 lb/mile, so it depends on number of passengers in each.
As for an electric car, they say an electric car is currently equivalent in emissions to an 80 mpg car, and the average gas car is 22mpg, so... about 4x.
So again very roughly, for that distance, air travel is better than car travel (in terms of CO2) unless you have a 4-person carpool for gas cars. If it's a one-person electric car, it's roughly equivalent.
Anyway still, the takeaway is that it's the travel distance that has the CO2 impact. Car vs Plane isn't really the point.
Local purchases may not be as green as you think. Only a small percent of carbon footprint from produce is due to transport. A centralized production could be more efficient and less carbon (and land) consuming overall.
The amount of conflict in the remarks is because both parties are right. It's very wonderful for Jeff Bezos to donate $10B dollars. But also it's right about private jets, which generate much carbon pollution.
It's fair to say that everyone has to do their part against climate problems. I for one make personal sacrifices yes. Less meat, less consuming, trying for local purchases as often as possible so the cheese I eat is not from France, driving a lot less, and also I fly much less. This year only one trip home instead of two.
For us to lift out of poverty many more people, it's worrying about the carbon costs of this. But now we have to behave smarter and people for whom sacrifices are easiest should make them first.