[Coral-List] ICRS2020 and remote meetings

[Douglas Fenner]

Airlines have gotten really good in recent years at adjusting the number of
flights to fill demand but keep planes nearly full, which maximizes
efficiency so they can keep costs down.  As long as they can do that, the
prices may depend on their efficiency, and they compete heavily to keep
costs down, including fuel which is one of their major costs.  I'm NO
expert, but my feeling is that as long as they can match the demand with
planes, demand won't heavily influence price.  It is true, as I think of
it, that heavy flown routes tend to be inexpensive because of fierce
competition for your business, while lightly traveled routes are more
expensive, and routes that have only one carrier and so no competition are
very expensive.  There are several places in the Pacific that have only one
airline serving the route, and they tend to be as much as twice as
expensive for the distance, yet people still fly.  For short distances
within archipelagos there are often ferries (which are much less expensive
and slow and infrequent, but can take heavy objects), but for longer
distances over oceans flying is the only public transport option.  I think
that economists have a thing they call "elasticity", that is, will people
adjust how much they use depending on the price.  In the past, oil was
considered very inelastic, people would not be much influenced by fuel
prices, continue buying the same, at least for transportation and heating,
etc.  Not sure what the state of play on that is now.
Cheers,  Doug

On Thu, Sep 19, 2019 at 5:29 AM Osmar Luiz via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> A true basic offer/demand concept means that less people flying will just
> makes the flights cheaper. Encouraging more people mo travel nevertheless.
> Its not denying, I really wish that individual actions like these would
> work, but it isn’t realistic. At least not for flying
>
> Cheers
> Osmar
>
> _______________________________________
> Osmar J. Luiz, Ph.D.
> Post Doctoral Fellow - Quantitative Aquatic Ecology
> Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods
> Charles Darwin University
> Darwin NT, Australia
>
> T: +61 8 8946 6684
> M: 0420 817 392
> Publications list: http://publicationslist.org/osmar.luiz
>
> https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=_ArEYYMAAAAJ&hl=en&cstart=0&pagesize=20
> E: osmar.luizjunior at cdu.edu.au
> W: cdu.edu.au
>
>
> > On 16 Sep 2019, at 7:18 am, frahome--- via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> >
> > It's amazing to see scientists being affected by the same sort of denial
> as politicians when it comes to take personal actions.No, flights won't
> continue as scheduled if reef scientists and all other people concerned
> about the future of our reefs/planet/society will decide to reduce their
> flying. It's basic offer/demand concept. This applies to all other
> impacting activities and aspects of our lifestyle. And yes being
> sustainable and walking the talk might also mean missing to dive in
> Indonesia if that doesn't fit in our per capita emission budget (0.6t/y
> according to a previous post on this thread). There are many other amazing
> things in life with lower footprints, including trying to live a
> sustainable lifestyle and motivating others to do so. When we ask for
> "system change" what are we asking for? Some measure that will allow us to
> continue our business as usual while emissions and impacts are magically
> reduced?Asking to have a "system change" without taking personal actions is
> like stating that we are not willing to do what needs to be done to be
> sustainable until someone makes it compulsory for us (in this case system
> change should tax so much air travel that we won't be able to afford it). I
> am sure that as well-educated, concerned scientists we could do better than
> the average Joe.Wouldn't be better to ask system change from the position
> where we already embrace that change and ask to make it compulsory for
> those that have not embraced it yet?It seems we say we want to save the
> reefs but then we say we are not willing to bring our footprint down to
> what would make it possible.
> > Francesca
> >
>

-- 
Douglas Fenner
Ocean Associates, Inc. Contractor
NOAA Fisheries Service
Pacific Islands Regional Office
Honolulu
and:
Consultant
PO Box 7390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA

"Global warming is manifestly the foremost current threat to coral reefs,
and must be addressed by the global community if reefs as we know them will
have any chance to persist."  Williams et al, 2019, Frontiers in Marine
Science

A call to climate action  (Science editorial)
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6443/807?utm_campaign=toc_sci-mag_2019-05-30&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=2840296

New book "The Uninhabitable Earth"  First sentence: "It is much, much worse
than you think."
Read first (short) chapter open access:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/read-a-chapter-from-the-uninhabitable-earth-a-dire-warning-on-climate-change