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Europe is caught in a dilemma: tourism, air travel, and city hopping are its economic lifeblood that keeps the continent running, but these also cause the great

Europe is caught in a dilemma: tourism, air travel, and city hopping are its economic lifeblood that keeps the continent running, but these also cause the greatest damage to the environment. Since they can't fix the real problem are trying to go "green" in counterproductive ways that make things worse: blowing up nuclear plants or taxing cow fart.

morsch 19d ago
Tourism is 10% of the economy, most of it is domestic or internal to Europe; most of it doesn't involve air travel or city hopping.
- simonh 19d ago
  10% of an economy is a lot, you don’t need to lose much of that to hit the entire sector very hard.
- DataDive 19d ago
  Note that this 10% is heavily skewed toward the richest, biggest cities. In bigger cities, it might be closer to 20-30% of their economy. Take that away, and it would have a cascading effect through entire countries.
  - morsch 19d ago
    Doesn't appear to be true, it's < 10% for the biggest cities (based on cursory research). Rome was 5% pre COVID; less now. https://assets-global.website-files.com/6329bc97af73223b575983ac/645e653ff3cac0968031bb6f_RomeEIR_.pdf https://assets-global.website-files.com/6329bc97af73223b5759...
  - arlort 19d ago
    Big cities are not big because of tourism. Unless you count the historical city center of Venice as a big city I doubt you'd get many big cities getting even close to those numbers I can't easily/quickly find some numbers but if we want to accept, with a grain of salt, Gemini research on this even in Venice (I think it counts Mestre as well) it's ~15% and that's the highest it found.
alde 19d ago
EU currently emits only 5% of the globally emitted greenhouse gases. You can cut all the city hopping you want and it won't make the slightest difference.
- netsharc 19d ago
  If it's not significant, can I have 5% of your net worth? If the EU mandated that products imported are made in a carbon neutral fashion, then importers of products will pay attention. Unfortunately it means higher prices, and the governments will get voted out of office by people voting for the populists selling the electoral promise of "Make Prices Low Again!"...
  - paganel 19d ago
    You won’t mind higher prices? Are you rich? Because most of us Europeans certainly aren’t.
    - anonymars 19d ago
      By that logic shouldn't petrol be a lot cheaper than it is in Europe?
    - netsharc 19d ago
      I like low prices, but I'm not looking forward to the chaos (political, social, what else) and deaths which I'm guessing will affect me within in the next 10 years.
      - paganel 19d ago
        The chaos is already here for us, the majority who are suffering the higher prices. Why do you think we're voting for the "extremist" parties? It's not because of "Russian propaganda", it's because life for the majority of us, normal Europeans, has become quite dreadful, economically and not only.
        17d ago

morsch 19d ago

Tourism is 10% of the economy, most of it is domestic or internal to Europe; most of it doesn't involve air travel or city hopping.

simonh 19d ago
10% of an economy is a lot, you don’t need to lose much of that to hit the entire sector very hard.
DataDive 19d ago
Note that this 10% is heavily skewed toward the richest, biggest cities. In bigger cities, it might be closer to 20-30% of their economy. Take that away, and it would have a cascading effect through entire countries.
- morsch 19d ago
  Doesn't appear to be true, it's < 10% for the biggest cities (based on cursory research). Rome was 5% pre COVID; less now. https://assets-global.website-files.com/6329bc97af73223b575983ac/645e653ff3cac0968031bb6f_RomeEIR_.pdf https://assets-global.website-files.com/6329bc97af73223b5759...
- arlort 19d ago
  Big cities are not big because of tourism. Unless you count the historical city center of Venice as a big city I doubt you'd get many big cities getting even close to those numbers I can't easily/quickly find some numbers but if we want to accept, with a grain of salt, Gemini research on this even in Venice (I think it counts Mestre as well) it's ~15% and that's the highest it found.

alde 19d ago

EU currently emits only 5% of the globally emitted greenhouse gases. You can cut all the city hopping you want and it won't make the slightest difference.

netsharc 19d ago
If it's not significant, can I have 5% of your net worth? If the EU mandated that products imported are made in a carbon neutral fashion, then importers of products will pay attention. Unfortunately it means higher prices, and the governments will get voted out of office by people voting for the populists selling the electoral promise of "Make Prices Low Again!"...
- paganel 19d ago
  You won’t mind higher prices? Are you rich? Because most of us Europeans certainly aren’t.
  - anonymars 19d ago
    By that logic shouldn't petrol be a lot cheaper than it is in Europe?
  - netsharc 19d ago
    I like low prices, but I'm not looking forward to the chaos (political, social, what else) and deaths which I'm guessing will affect me within in the next 10 years.
    - paganel 19d ago
      The chaos is already here for us, the majority who are suffering the higher prices. Why do you think we're voting for the "extremist" parties? It's not because of "Russian propaganda", it's because life for the majority of us, normal Europeans, has become quite dreadful, economically and not only.
      - 17d ago