Save the planet - don't see the world?

CHEAP FLIGHTS VS THE ENVIRONMENT: SAVE THE PLANET, DON'T SEE THE WORLD?

Budget airlines offer affordable travel to an increasing number of destinations, but environmental objections take the fun out of holidays in the sun. Having expanded our horizons, must we now reduce them again? Or do the benefits of travel for the people outweigh the problems for the environment?

Four speakers will debate this question from very different perspectives at the seminar 'SAVE THE PLANET, DON'T SEE THE WORLD?', taking place in central London on Tuesday 23 May 2006. The event is being organised by the online publication spiked [www.spiked-online.com] and the consultancy Clarke Mulder Purdie [http://www.cmpcommunications.com].

- Seminar speaker BRENDAN O'NEILL, journalist and deputy editor of spiked, says:

'The dinner-party disdain for cheap flights is old-fashioned snobbery swaddled in environmentalist lingo. What they really hate about cheap flights is the apparently cheap people who take them - working classes with a bit of money who like to let loose by flying to Eastern Europe or Spain. We need more cheap flying, not less, so that more people can see more of the world.'

- Seminar speaker TONY JUNIPER, executive director of Friends of the Earth, says:

'Artificially cheap air travel has enabled many better off people to enjoy stag weekends in Prague and to fly more often to their second homes in France, but at huge environmental cost. Air transport is the fastest growing source of carbon dioxide, the gas most responsible for the rapid climate change now taking place - which is the most serious threat facing the planet.'

- Seminar speaker PETER SMITH, lecturer in travel and tourism at St Mary's College, says:

'Greater mobility has opened up wider options for living and working. The range of experiences now open to us is unprecedented. Fashionable campaigns encourage us to limit unnecessary air travel, but the benefits of travel far outweigh the negative impacts. And anyway, who gets to decide whether travel is necessary or unnecessary?'

- Seminar speaker JOHN ADAMS, professor of geography at University College London, says:

'Mobility is liberating and empowering, but it is possible to have too much of a good thing. As average mobility increases, disparities also increase. The growth in the numbers exercising their freedom and power is fouling the planet and jamming its arteries.'

Further details of the seminar 'SAVE THE PLANET, DON'T SEE THE WORLD?' are available online at: http://www.spiked-online.com/event

BRENDAN O'NEILL, TONY JUNIPER, PETER SMITH and JOHN ADAMS are available for comment or interview.

Contact SANDY STARR at spiked:
Tel +44 (0)20 7269 9234
Email Sandy.Starr@spiked-online.com

Contact CHRIS CLARKE at Clarke Mulder Purdie:
Tel +44 (0)20 7401 8001
Email cclarke@cmpcommunications.com