With a guitar ffs. They probably didn’t have enough baggage allowance to take the smugness with them.

Sounds like a great adventure.  Tbf if you're in East Timor today, I'd have serious doubts they'll be in Sydney by the 28th without getting on a plane.

How else would these folks like to have international travel ‘set up’ for them to travel  easily to Oz, without planes?

Pathetic bunch of mewling tossers.

According to Google Maps, it takes 4 days and 9 hours from Darwin to Sydney on a Greyhound bus. That's assuming it all works out.

And quite frankly even Jetstar world be better than that.

Have you any idea how much fuel 'planes use? 

While I appreciate that the Right wing anti-environment loonies find it hard to believe anyone could possibly make a sacrifice for the greater good, claiming it's counter-productive is nonsense. 

1st world folks who have suckled greedily on the public sector's teat  all their working lives have been able to save enough for a 8 month family jolly around the world and back...

As far as performative environmentalism goes, this surely takes the hob-nob.

suckled greedily on the public sector's teat 

You mean by working for the public good on a lower salary than they could otherwise have earned? 

Carbon emitted at altitude is worse for the environment too. 

In any event, the husband worked for a private enterprise. True, the wife was a schoolmistress, but your description of her is a bizarre one. 

The absolute max a primary school teacher in the South West can earn is £46,500 and it's unlikely she was on that. 

"Have you any idea how much fuel 'planes use?" 

I suppose it depends how you measure the family's carbon footprint for the flight - is it the total emissions of the flight divided by the total passengers then multiplied by 3? Or is it the total emissions of a flight with them and the other passengers on it less the total emissions the flight would put out with 3 fewer people on board? 

The flight would have gone ahead whether they bought tickets or not, so the actual saving they have made is only the excess emissions that their weight would actually cause. 

Sounds much more enjoyable than flying there.

They might come across as a bit smug, but I can't see that they are otherwise harming anyone, strange thing to get upset about. 

Perhaps it's the fact that they're on holiday for a few months instead of at a desk for 10 hours a day. Who's the tosser there?

it's the utter bull of their reason that bothers me so much.

If it was just a holiday, I'd be happy for them but their carbon footprint will work out roughly the same if not more due to the length of time they've been travelling (phone and laptop charging, feeding, heating, hostels and hotels and buses, ferries, trains).

My cousin Ted drove from Sidney to Monaghan (and back) in the 70s in a VW van.. he didn't do it for environmental reasons, he did it to see if he could do it, plus he was a bit nuts.

Eddie, sun, they still would have been charging their phones and laptops and heating their house if they weren't travelling.

also probably eating

Probably also using buses and trains to get around at home.

If they can sail the final stretch then that's definitely a good carbon saving.  Even a cargo ship is probably better than a cruise liner given the time they spend running generators to power all the extra luxuries they have on board.

I recently learned that the healthcare sector is responsible for 4.4% of global CO2 emissions, which is more than the aviation and shipping sectors.  If healthcare was a country, it would be the fifth largest emitter of CO2.

Yes, my point is they've saved nothing.  Their flights take less than 24 hours but instead, for their "stand", they've taken almost 4 months to get there and have had the same carbon footprint anyway

Electric airships is another possibility but they only go about 80mph so it would take about a week. 

Eddie - what is the carbon difference between each mode of transport? Sounds like you've done the calculations. 

According to Google Maps, it takes 4 days and 9 hours from Darwin to Sydney on a Greyhound bus. That's assuming it all works out.

I've done Melbourne - Sydney - Townsville - Darwin on a bus (Deluxe Coachlines, nostalgia fans).  It's perhaps fine when you're 18....

Dux, tell us how much fuel a plane uses to fly london to Sydney.

Can I just say that Dux referring to the lady here as a "schoolmistress" is just so Dux?

heh u guys

It’s well-settled that trains, buses and ships produce much less CO2 than flying. They will have saved a lot of carbon.

Giving up flying over 20 years ago, and not making an exception even when going to daughter/sister’s wedding in Aus is pretty good going in my view.

I love the idea in this thread that, if they weren’t on the slow route, they wouldn’t be eating or charging phones or laptops. 

Wouldn’t necessarily shout about it to the BBC, but as performative environmentalists go, they sound like they walk the walk.