The liberal media is now trying to attack a very profitable industry. Over the course of the past year, we have heard liberal news outlets spout off about “flight shaming”. Now, comes this report from Citi over the past week:

Consumers are paying more attention to their carbon footprint and it could cost airlines billions of dollars.”-Citi, in a note to clients.

Oh boy. Let’s shake in our boots a bit here. Flight-shaming is gaining traction! Al Jazeera is even calling it the “Greta Effect“. The Swedish even have a term for this: “flygskam”. Good. Stay in Sweden, land of perfection to our liberal American citizens, for all we care. Is there a barf bag in the seat pocket in front of me because I may need one…

One in five Western travellers is flying less, as “flight shaming” propels people to shun air travel for the sake of the planet – according to a survey of 6,000 Americans and Europeans by Swiss bank UBS.

The survey predicted environmental concerns would keep denting air traffic, as activists such as Sweden’s Greta Thunberg lead the way and turn people off planes.”-Al Jazeera

So, can we now expect an uptick in yachting to cross over into continents? More from Citi:

We hypothesize that some airlines will ‘reward’ customers who choose to offset their carbon footprint by granting them a green seat on an aircraft. Meanwhile, customers who do not offset will be allocated a red one and placed into a state of ‘shame'”

Green seats, of course, will cost more. The “red” passengers will be placed in a “state of shame”. What in the hell does that look like? Does the passenger get a dunce cap? Or perhaps he or she gets to watch a video on loop of Little Miss Greta screaming at them, “how dare you” on their 13-hour trek across the Pacific. No bags of nuts for this passenger. The price paid for “green seats” will be part of a carbon offsetting initiative with proceeds funding “projects”. Citi said the beneficiaries of the carbon offsetting business will likely be rail operators, governments and forestland owners.

How many “forestland owners” do we hear about on a daily basis? Rail operators in the U.S.? It is not as if we have a great railway infrastructure or the means of supporting such. If we were Japan, sure. Ever ride the train in Japan? The local trains, the high-speed Shinkansen (bullet-train) are all punctual, all dependable. If we’re talking the train wreck (no pun intended) cluster-eff of an organization that is Amtrak, boy are we in trouble! So, let’s break this down. Where will the money really go? GOVERNMENTS. Which governments? Who knows? Who cares? What will said “governments” do with the money? Line the pockets of their chosen people because at the end of the day, they really don’t give a flying rat turd about the whales or heck, even the people living in squalor in their own cities or third-world countries. Let’s also talk about the economies that benefit from tourism thanks to air travel. Will they reap rewards from fewer air travelers and “green seats” on planes? It’s doubtful.

But climate change activists and the liberal media want to give readers the impression that flying is somehow bad and this pisses me off. Do I have a personal stake in this game? You bet I do. My husband makes a living flying people from one destination to the next. He has served in The United States Marine Corps as an aviator and has worked hard to obtain a career on a major carrier. These pilots and the flight crews work hard every day, some strange hours, some on holidays so individuals can partake of one of the more efficient (and safe) means of travel. Climate change activists want to put these people out of work and while I may be being a big baby about things here, I personally take offense to this because now they’re messing with my family and a Jersey girl does not like it when people mess with her family. Just saying.

All humor aside for the moment, there is no shame in flight. As a little girl, I’d marvel at the underbellies of these huge flying machines as they passed over our car whilst hanging off to the side of Rockaway Boulevard. I loved to watch them land at JFK. This was my favorite thing to do with my dad as a kid-watch airplanes. Ironic much that I married a pilot? Nah. Airplanes are magnificent. They unite us, not divide us. Flight affords us the ability to bridge the gaps, to gain perspectives on other cultures by traveling to different destinations. Air travel offers us the ability to be with loved ones near and far, in times of joy and in times of sadness. Now, climate change activists want to petition airline companies to shame a person who cannot afford a “green” ticket who needs to travel cross-country to bury a loved one? Have we gone mad?! Shame on THEM. Hey, flygskam clan, put away your phones and listen up to this safety brief: there are four exits on this aircraft. Two Forward, two aft and one over each wing. Want to “lower your emissions”? Cut your sanctimonious drivel, shut your faces, get off my plane and take the damn train. Charter a yacht for all we care. As for me and my house, we travel the blue highway. And we are not ashamed.

Photo Credit: FlickR/Creative Commons/Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)/Cropped