Not sure how much of a frequent flyer you'd have to be to make a conscious decision to fly less. I'm certainly not there.

Flying once a year will, for most people, form a significant percentage of their total CO2 footprint. So cutting that in half by flying once every two years would already be a big improvement.

Flying 5000 KM apparently produces approximately 1 ton of CO2. The 2010 rate average CO2 footprint per capita was about 7 tons a year, and the goal by 2050, if we mean to have a reasonable chance of keeping warming by 2100 to less than 2 degrees centigrade from pre-industrial levels, is a bit over 2 tons. So if you fly at all, making a conscious decision to fly less will help.[1]

Yes, the requirements to meet that goal of sub-2-degree warming by 2100 are pretty severe.

[1]http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/carbon-targets-for-your-footp...

I've been on a plane exactlt twice in my life. It's pretty easy not to fly.

And your right, individual action won't scale...

For the US you have a lot of work to do before you have a moderately decent working political system.

to me this implies you don't travel or go out much. so what do you do for fun then?

I don’t see where you get that implication. Perhaps they’re spending a month in France rather than taking three one-week trips. Perhaps they’re living closer to town so that they don’t drive as much to get to work and their local hacker club. There’s lots of ways you can reorganize your life to be less resource-intensive without meaningful sacrifice, especially if you’re starting from the immensely wasteful late-20th-century-middle-class lifestyle.

All you have to do is take on less flight in your life to make a huge impact. The carbon output per person of a round trip flight from NY to Phoenix is 806 pounds.

http://gscleanenergy.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-much-gas-does-...

It's one of the best decisions I've made. I have more adventure, culture, cuisine, and other values I used to get from travel, without the pollution and emissions.

I posted about it here -- https://www.inc.com/joshua-spodek/365-days-without-flying.ht..., although my views have continued to evolve since then -- and on my blog.

I haven't been in a plane myself in 4 years. I got months without getting in a car. I'm up to my ears in adventure.

But it's not enough, right? We're completely dependent on cheap sources of fossil fuels to drive our economy. How much carbon is released in the atmosphere from just me eating food?

Ah yes, life without flying must be so dull. Is that what you're implying? Seems rather silly.

> Only if I change can I expect or hope anyone else will

This makes no logical sense. Only if I fly to the moon can I ever expect anyone else too? Some things require collective action at the government level.

Singular persons influence people, ..., attitudes change and then governments react.