Last chance to see*

So flying eh? Hope you're all having a lovely time on your exotic foreign holiday. And it's all so easy now isn't it, what with Easy Jet and so on? Forty quid to get to Morocco. Probably not much more to get to the Maldives. And only a few quid extra to fly onto Bangladesh. Just a couple of places that we all need to book early for to avoid disappointment. Disappointment? Yes, the disappointment of them disappearing under the ocean waves. Them and a few million animals and probably quite a few hundred thousand people too. But hey, you took the chance and got there to see them before they could disappear. i just hope you were able to look some of the inhabitants, maybe the ones who will die or lose their livelihood, perhaps your barman at the hotel or your maid who cleans your room, in the eye as you told them how tiring it was to fly. I expect you had a moan too, about how tricky the new rules are at the airport now with terrorism and so on. But my heart doesn't bleed for you, it bleeds for them. For the countries and the poor people who will die. Because it won't be us, will it, who dies from global warming? Us rich middle class countries and people? No it won't be us that suffers. But how lucky that we can still fly really cheaply to all these places and catch a last glimpse of them, even as we destroy them.

Add VAT to aircraft fuel. Now.
Increase airport tax to a level that makes the budget airlines squeal very loudly, because then we know it's having an effect, then double it.


* Douglas Adams. Something of a gentleman, and rather missed.