bearing blog

More on "spiritual poverty."

Melanie picked up my ball in the last post and ran with it:

Especially in the online world it can be so hard to see others’ humanity, to risk being flamed at by approaching what seems like a scoff as if it were an invitation to a dialogue, to risk seeming like a fool for enagaging a “troll” instead of dismissing him with scornful words. And in Catholic comment boxes you also risk being chided by your fellow Catholics for engaging with such angry hurtful people. “Don’t feed the trolls,” they warn you. But perhaps that’s exactly what we are called to do? To feed them? Couldn’t it be that the troll who regularly hangs out at Catholic sites someone who is hungering for the truth but afraid of rejection so is preemptively rejecting those who he feels have already shut him out?

Mind blown by the sudden new meaning of the term "to feed trolls."

You still have a responsibility not to feed the troll on the property of the person who has the "don't feed trolls" rule, i.e., in their comment box.  But you could invite them to your own blog or you could contact them off-blog.  And you could certainly engage respectfully (and skillfully) in a manner designed to be peaceful, all light and no heat.

Having started down that line of thinking, how there is a need for the spiritually impoverished to be fed, especially online I began to imagine that some individuals might have the vocation of doing just that. Then as I talked it over with Dom he said, it couldn’t be individuals. It would have to be people living in community. And as we talked I began to envision a new sort of religious community: the Missionaries to the Digital Continent. A cloistered contemplative order who live the Benedictine motto ora et labora whose days are ordered around the monastic hours and Eucharistic adoration and who are dedicated to bringing Christ to all the darkest corners of the internet. 

Aw, man, you beat me to it.  I've been thinking of this for a long time but haven't written about it here.  Instead I wrote it in Dorian Speed's Facebook comments.  This is what I wrote after she went on her rant about that Vatican website using Comic Sans:

Dorian, I think you're just the person to take this idea and run with it (when you are done with Electingthepope.net of course): The Church needs a new religious order of blogging and HTML-savvy monks and nuns. We need to set up a cloister with high-speed Internet connection and excellent tech support. In between praying the Liturgy of the Hours, attending daily Mass, and working in the refectory and gardens, they'll do pro bono web design for struggling Comic-Sans-using parishes and church organizations everywhere. They'll also surf the Internet looking for combox discussions into which to inject a note of charity and wisdom. Also they will pray for trolls.

and in another comment, an afterthought:

We can put the adoration chapel in a Faraday cage so they don't get distracted from what really matters.

Anyway, not to get too distracted about it: 

Melanie suggests organizing the effort to be "spiritually poor" around the seven traditional Spiritual Works of Mercy.  (You can find these enumerated here.) Since we're talking about an analogy anyway, let me list the seven Corporal Works of Mercy first:

• To feed the hungry;
• To give drink to the thirsty;
• To clothe the naked;
• To harbour the harbourless;
• To visit the sick;
• To ransom the captive;
• To bury the dead.

The seven Spiritual Works of Mercy are

• To instruct the ignorant;
• To counsel the doubtful;
• To admonish sinners;
• To bear wrongs patiently;
• To forgive offences willingly;
• To comfort the afflicted;
• To pray for the living and the dead.

Just as the charism of the Franciscans was to perform works of mercy from a position of being intentionally corporally poor, we are envisioning a charism of performing works of mercy from a position of being intentionally spiritually poor.  

The intentional corporal poverty was a means of demonstrating (among other things) that none of us can pat ourselves on the back for acheiving our material riches, because so much of it was out of our control and all of it, our physical life itself, is a gift.  We may have had a hand in taking and shaping God's good gifts to our profit, in making good decisions along the way (we do believe in free will after all, and that God lets us participate in the development of our own futures) but in the end we owe it all to God.  "No shroud has pockets" indeed.

So the intentional spiritual poverty would be a means of demonstrating (among other things) that none of us can pat ourselves on the back for achieving whatever spiritual riches we have.  The intellect with which we absorb the deep theological musings of the doctors of the Church, and craft arguments to defend her teachings?  Gift from God.  The desire we have to come closer to God?  A gift.  The gift of emotions, of sorrow at the Passion, of joy at the Resurrection?  A gift.  True contrition?  Gift.  Gratitude to God for all his good gifts?  A gift in and of itself.

I am not sure how to demonstrate it outwardly except, as I said, by a radical non-judgmentalism of the person.  Even the most objectively horrible people must be reached out to with love and compassion and a recognition of "there but for the grace of God go I."   

It strikes me that, if the contemplative wing of this order be called to Internet surfing and commenting, that the active wing be called to prison ministry.

Internet contract for kids.

After I wrote the Internet safety lesson I described in a previous post, I learned that my good friend IRL The Road Scholar had put up a lot of good links related to Internet use in the homeschool.  This included a set of "10 digital commandments for kids" in the form of a contract for kids to go over with their parents and sign.  (The Road Scholar's commandments were, in turn, adapted from a set found at Komando.com.)

I thought the contract was a great idea.  And no, I don't think it's overkill.  Whenever there are complicated permission structures, where the rules are many and detailed, having "the rules" in a written form is good for everybody, so that we can refer back to it to remember exactly what we previously agreed upon.   Also, going over the rules carefully is a way to have a conversation about what the rules should be.  Parents do have authority over their kids, but sometimes kids have good ideas that should be incorporated into the agreement. 

It's particularly important in areas where kids and teens are learning to exercise freedom responsibly:  internet use, staying home alone, learning to drive a car. In situations like that, we want them to stretch a little bit, so that they can gain experience and (it's to be hoped) wisdom; but we do not want them to stretch dangerously beyond their capabilities faster than their maturity can keep up.   That is complicated and subjective, and in a bigger family it's hard to keep track of where everybody is at a given time.

Furthermore, I think it's important to include items that protect the child's interests as well.  At some point, I think a parent needs to demonstrate respect for a child's privacy by agreeing to limit blogging about them or writing about them on FB.  So note below that the contract includes language that could let my child ask me to remove or modify blog posts about him.  And I think it's so important that a child be honest about what he or she encounters online, that I think it's reasonable to agree up front that if the child tells us promptly about a potentially dangerous encounter, he will not be punished (though privileges might be reduced; changes in privileges should not be construed as punishments).

So I took the contract and adapted it for my own family, in which there is an almost-11-year-old boy who is just now getting expanded access to the Internet.  I thought I'd post the text of my adapted contract here.  Feel free to use it or adapt it for your own family.

Comments are welcome.  We haven't gone over the contract with him yet, so please tell me if you have any feedback or suggestions!  I can still make changes.

+ + +

Internet and Computer Contract for Kids Under 18

 
When I use computers, mobile devices, phones, and the Internet, I promise to follow these rules to keep my family, my friends and myself safe.   I will discuss these rules with my parents and initial each section as we discuss them.

--

1.  My parents will decide when I am allowed to use the computer, cell phone, Wii or other game system, and the Internet.

• I will only visit sites they say I can.
• I will only do things we agree are appropriate.
• I will log out when they ask me to log out.
• I will not allow my siblings to log in on my account or use my “time” without permission.
• I will respect the rules that my friends' parents set for them.  I will not help them break their parents' rules.
• If I use the Internet while I am away from my parents or at a friend's house, I will let my parents know that I did.  I will tell them about any new games I played.  
• If I or one of my friends brings a new game or video into the house, I will show it to my parents.
• I will tell my parents if I accidentally use a device, play a game, or  visit a site I  think they might not want me to use.  I know that my parents will not punish me for accidentally doing this as long as I tell them right away.

Initial here:   Kid _____     Parent _____

2.   I will never tell anyone secure information without getting my parent’s permission first.

• I will not say when I am alone or when the house is empty or tell my family's schedule.
• I will not tell my family's last name, address, workplaces, passwords, or phone numbers.  
• I will keep this information about my friends as private as I keep my own information.
• I will not use the Internet to show, spread, or tell anything private.
• If I am not sure whether something should be kept private, I will ask my parents.
• If I want help keeping something private, I can ask my parents.
• I know that if I ask my parents to keep private a story or a picture that features me, they will respect my wishes.  I can ask my parents to remove information that they have shared about me from social media.
• I know that it is very easy for secrets to spread once they are in electronic form.
• I know that any electronic message on the Internet could be read or seen by anyone, forever.
• If I accidentally reveal information, I will tell my parents the same day so they can act to protect our family.  I know my parents will not punish me if I tell them right away.

Initial here:   Kid _____     Parent _____

3.   I will not participate in mean, physically dangerous, or morally wrong activities online.

• If anyone does or says anything that bothers me, I will tell my parents.
• I will show my parents if I see material or play a game that 
  • is obscene 
  • depicts real and severe violence or simulates realistic and severe violence
  • shows nudity, meaning pictures of people who are naked or who are showing the parts of their bodies usually covered by bathing suits
  • is cruel
  • encourages people to do things that are wrong or illegal
  • frightens or disturbs me
  • tries to trick me into revealing personal information or do something wrong
  • seems to be a lie
• I know that my parents will not punish me for accidentally seeing such material if I tell my parents right away.
• I will not do, say, send, or show anything obscene, illegal, immoral, frightening, or cruel.
• I know that it is not lying if I use a fake name to protect my identity or if I refuse to tell information to a person who has no right to know it.  I know that it is always okay for a kid to refuse to tell any information over the Internet.
• I know that search engines and online information sources such as Wikipedia could lead me to sites that are obscene, cruel, dangerous, frightening, or tricky.
• I know that much of the information on the Internet is untrue or misleading.
• If I want to search for information on the Internet at home, I will let my parents know before I start.  I will always search on the computer in the living room where they can observe me and help me.
• If I want to use the computers in the library to search, I will use the computers set aside for kids in my age group (“kids” or “teens.”)

Initial here:   Kid _____     Parent _____

4.   I will never post or send pictures of myself, my family or friends without my parents' permission.

• If I set up a blog or online profile, I will tell my parents where it is and how they can read it.
• If I join a social network, mailing list, file or sharing site, or group of any kind, I will invite my parents to join.
• I will work with my parents to set privacy and sharing settings that satisfy them.

Initial here:   Kid _____     Parent _____

5.   I will never, ever meet with anyone I've talked with online without first talking to my parents.

Initial here:   Kid _____     Parent _____

6.   If my parents ask for my password, I will give it to them.

• I will never give out any passwords I know to any others, not even friends or siblings.
• If I find out a password that belongs to my parents, I will tell them that I know it.

Initial here:   Kid _____     Parent _____

7.   If I want to download anything, I will ask for permission FIRST.

• I know that some applications, games, music, movies, or programs are unsafe to download.
• I know that I must pay for these things and that the cost is sometimes hidden.
• I know that sometimes “free” content is really stolen.

Initial here:   Kid _____     Parent _____

8.  I will not try to win free things or buy things on a phone or on the Internet. 

• If I get a message that I have won something, I will show my parents.
• If I get an email asking me to enter a password or other information, I will tell my parents.
• I will not forward messages that tell me bad stuff will happen to me if I do not forward them.
• I will not click on any advertisements.  If I accidentally click on an advertisement, I will close any new windows that appear and go “back” to the last page I was viewing.

Initial here:   Kid _____     Parent _____

9.   I will not change settings, install software, or open my parents' files without permission.

•  If I think I might have accidentally done this, I will tell my parents right away so they can fix it.
• I know that my parents will not punish me for accidentally doing this as long as I tell my parents right away.

Initial here:   Kid _____     Parent _____

10.   I understand that my parents allow me to use the Internet, computers, and games on the condition that I do not hide from them what I do. 

• My parents may examine the computer, my phone or any other device that they or I own.
• They may see where I have gone on the Internet, what emails and text messages I’ve sent and received, the things I’ve downloaded, or what I do. 
• I will not erase my browsing history or record of sent messages without permission.
• I will BCC one of my parents on every email I send until they set different rules for me.
• I promise not to turn off or alter any parental-controls settings or software installed by my parents.
• I will not close a window when my parents come into the room to hide something I’m viewing.
• If I use code words or abbreviations, I will tell my parents what they mean.
• If I think I may have accidentally done something I am not supposed to, I will tell my parents right away.
• If I want to do something that I am not sure my parents would approve of, I will ask them first.

Initial here:   Kid _____     Parent _____

 

For the child:

• I have read the above, and I will follow these rules.     
• If I do not follow these rules, I understand that my parents might reduce my privileges or punish me.
• I understand that “reducing my privileges” is not necessarily a punishment.  My parents might reduce my privileges for any reason in order to keep our family safe.
• I also understand that even if my parents do not punish me, my actions on the Internet might have consequences from which my parents might not be able to protect me or from which they might choose not to protect me.

_____________________________________

Child's signature                                 Date

For the parents:

• I agree to let my child use electronic devices as long as they follow these rules.  
• I agree to answer any of my child's questions that will help him or her use the Internet safely and responsibly.   
• I agree to make changes to the rules clearly and in writing, and keep them with this contract, so that my child always knows what the rules are.
• I agree not to punish a child for accidentally breaking a rule, as explained above, as long as he promptly tells  a parent about it.
• I agree to discuss my child's ideas for safely increasing privileges as the child learns to use the Internet responsibly.

____________________________________

Parent's signature                               Date


_____________________________________

Parent's signature                                Date                 

 

+ + +

Difficulty parsing.

For a minute I thought this comic was about NFP. 

And then I thought:  Wait a minute, this stick figure is a guy.

 

"My client is not in a hurry."

Said architect Antonio Gaudí about his life's work.  National Geographic this month has a pretty good article about an interesting (and I think, beautiful) building, well over a hundred years in the making:  Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona.

In 1883 Gaudí inherited the Sagrada Família from another architect, who had laid a traditional neo-Gothic base. Gaudí envisioned a soaring visual narrative of Christ's life, but knew that the massive project could not be completed in his lifetime. For more than 12 years prior to his death in 1926—he spent his last year living at the site—he rendered his plans as geometric three-dimensional models rather than as conventional drawings. Though many were destroyed by vandals during the Spanish Civil War, those models have been vital to Gaudí's successors.

"They contain the entire building's structural DNA," explains Mark Burry, an Australia-based architect who has worked on the Sagrada Família for 31 years, using drawings and computer technology to help translate Gaudí's designs for today's craftsmen. "You can extract the architectural whole even from fragments. The models are how Gaudí met the architect's challenge: taking a complex, holistic idea and explicating it so others can understand and continue it after your death."

I can see why the style is polarizing, why many people don't like it.  (Gaudí's style superficially resembles flamboyant Gothic, in my opinion, while taking inspiration from natural forms.) But unlike the pared-down modernism that's so common in recent church building, the style (though new) strikes me as recognizably, richly, traditionally Catholic.  And I love the story of how it's being built so slowly, the job passed on from generation to generation, much like the cathedrals of old.

End of an era.

Derek Lowe, defending chemistry blogging against the usual charges (no fact-checking, no editorial oversight, yadda yadda yadda) is absolutely right:

There is indeed a lot of inaccurate nonsense on the internet. And everyone should read what they find online with a thought to who's written it, and why. But everyone should do the same with stuff that's printed on flattened sheets of dead trees, too, even if there are flattened-dead-tree-sheet editors and fact checkers. This is no place to list the stories that have been horribly messed up by even the most respectable of the old media. I'm thinking of a good list right now; any well-informed person should be able to. (If you can't, you're not as well-informed as you think you are). And there is indeed a lot of good science reporting in newspapers and magazines, although we can't ignore the fact that there's an awful lot of lazy and sloppy science reporting, too.

But there's a lot of inaccurate nonsense in the peer-reviewed literature, too. Without editors and reviewers there would surely be more, but too much junk gets through as it is. And if you want to see that stuff flagged, you'll do well to read the chemistry blogs.

Professional journalists -- even (especially?) sci-tech journalists -- don't have a monopoly on the wide dissemination of sci-tech information anymore.  And we're all better off for it.

Introduction to the Devout Life 3-23 and 3-24: Discernment in mortification and in social interaction.

As I wrote previously, I'm not exactly skipping ahead so much as I am considering the chapters of part 3 out of order:  chapters 1, 2, 37, 23, and 24 all have in common a topic of discernment of how to practice virtue, and so it seems prudent to read them first before diving into the chapters on particular virtues.

3-23 is entitled "Mortification" and has to do with exercising moderation in "corporal austerities."  Fasting too much is discussed, as well as not getting enough sleep.  Francis also chides those who would discipline the flesh when corrections should rather be applied to the heart.  

There is a lot to recommend this chapter.  Here is a bit that relates to fasting and gluttony:

We should always remember our Lord's words to his disciples:  "Be content to eat the fare they offer you." (Lk 10:8).  In my opinion to eat whatever is set before us, as and when it is set before us, whether we like it or not, is more virtuous than always to choose the worst; the latter may seem more austere yet it lacks that resignation by which we not only give up our own taste but also our own choice.  There is no little austerity in always accommodating our taste to whatever is put before us; such mortification makes no show, causes no inconvenience and is very suitable for those who live in the world.  To refuse one dish for the sake of another, to sample everything, find nothing well cooked, or properly clean, and to make mysteries of every mouthful, indicates a pampered heart which can rise no higher than plates and dishes...  

...Consistent moderation is better than occasional immoderate abstinence followed by indulgence.

There you go!

Chapter 24 is about society and solitude, and is well summed up by its first sentence:  

To go to extremes in seeking and shunning company are equally blameworthy for those who live in the world.

Here's his basic guideline:

If there is no good reason for seeking the company of others or for entertaining them at home, keep yourself company; but if others come to you, Philothea, or if there is good reason to seek them, mix with them willingly and cheerfully, in God's name.

I suppose the members of our own family count as "others" who "come to us."  No fair hiding in my room then.

As usual, Francis's advice isn't that we should completely avoid enjoyable worldly pursuits -- like parties and social get-togethers whose purpose is only for having fun.   We should only be careful that they don't rule our heart:

Some social gatherings have no other end but recreation, and are merely a diversion from serious occupation; as far as these are concerned, we should not be too attached to them nor devote to them more than our spare time.  Some visits are necessary out of politeness, for example, social calls to pay our respects to our neighbours; in such cases we should neither be too punctilious in their fulfilment nor so impolite as to neglect them, but fulfil our obligations, modestly avoiding bad manners on the one hand and frivolity on the other.

Francis finishes up by recommending that we cultivate a love for solitude so that we can find refreshment in it when we need it.

This chapter raises a question to me that I haven't quite answered:  Is time spent on the internet, reading blogs and forums and the like, a type of solitude or a type of society?  Does the answer to that question depend on our own inclinations? 

Sequelae.

I live far, far away from the Gulf of Mexico.  I have never walked its beaches and have not seen its waters (unless you want to count a single airplane flight into New Orleans for an American Chemical Society conference some years ago).

The kind of natural getaway that's within a day's drive of my family is the north woods of Minnesota.  Also beautiful and fun for the family, but not much like a beach.

So I appreciated this:   a brief, wistful description of the immediate effects from the BP oil disaster, on a family with kids, much like mine.

Noticed this at the bottom and thought it was worth repeating:

We plan on still supporting our beach towns by returning here throughout the year. Although we may not have been able to prevent the ecological destruction caused by BP, we can prevent the economical fallout and keep our beach towns alive. If you live nearby, I encourage you to do the same.

History, threaded.

I'm trying to organize my third year of literature-based U.S. history for my family and two other families, and as I've written before -- see my "History" category -- I'm considering organizing it not chronologically, but topically.  Or rather, by "threads" connecting the start of the 20th century to today.  I'd like to use it to explain "how we got here," that is, put into a hundred years of context the stories they hear about on today's news, on the radio and at the dinner table.

You can't teach everything.  Time is limited.  Whenever you design a history curriculum, really any curriculum,  you must decide what's important enough to cover.  I thought maybe my criterion for "importance" might be:  Does this story help explain anything the children see around them, reflected on the news, in the lives of themselves and their friends, in the popular culture they are absorbing?  

And when I started thinking about it that way, it made sense to arrange history by topic, in terms of what it explains, rather than strictly chronologically as most textbooks do it:  "The Depression Era," "The Postwar Era," and so forth.

Here are my stabs at potential "threads" through the twentieth century -- which, in a topical and cultural sense, is not from 1900 to 1999, but rather is from American involvement in World War I to 9-11.  (I say September 11, 2001 is the cultural beginning of the twenty-first century in America -- and I will bet you it will be regarded as such by cultural historians.)

I present them in no particular order.  Within each thread we can cover the subtopics chronologically.

Thread 1.  America as a superpower.  World Wars I and II, the Manhattan Project, the UN, NATO, Marshall Plan, Truman Doctrine, Cold War (including Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Cuba), cultural opposition to and support for Communism, nuclear proliferation and fear of "the bomb" as a cultural meme, U.S. foreign aid, fall of Eastern bloc leaving China as the "other" superpower.

Thread 2.  Establishing the current U. S. borders and holdings.  Alaska, Hawaii, other U. S. holdings, how we wound up with U. S. military bases all over the place.

Thread 3.  African-American history and civil rights/equality in general.  Pick up where we left off with Ida B. Wells and WEB Dubois.  Legal segregation, great migration of African Americans to north and to cities, female suffrage, Brown v. Board of Education and school integration, bios of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, civil disobedience in the civil rights movement, general civil rights legislation including for women and the disabled, election of the first African-American president.

Thread 4.  Changes to American experience of childhood.  The economic work of children changes with child labor laws; most children attend institutional schools; many gender-based restrictions are lifted; more children spend time with sitters or in institutional day care; more children grow up in divorced families; more children are raised by single parents.   

Two special note on this one:  

1. This category contains some sensitive topics that our families will probably want to teach within our families rather than as a group.  For example, as a historical topic, I think Roe v. Wade belongs here, I trust the other families will cover or not cover it in a manner appropriate to their kids' readiness.  Ditto with any implications for sexual morality, etc.   
2. Much of this thread incorporates what is, in other history texts, folded into a "women's rights" chapter, but I'm shifting things like women's suffrage to the civil rights thread, and keeping here a discussion of how women's equality affected the experience of children.  That makes it sound as if I'm going to stick to "children suffered when their women's libber moms went to work," but no -- remember that the experience of girlhood was transformed in many good ways, too, with more opportunities for education, athletics... more possible futures.  The important thing is to put in context the purpose of work: for the good of the family.  More options increases the potential for abuse, but for effective service as well.

Thread 5.  Economics.  Depression, war industries, GI bill, postwar baby boom, postwar industrialization, the "war on poverty," federal programs like Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, inflation and recession cycles, waves of immigration, the housing bubble and the current recession.  Talk about the tension between large government and small government ideals -- lots of entitlement programs and a big safety net, or a smaller safety net and lower taxes.  

One of my philosophies about teaching that involves politics at this age (in the classical/trivium domain, rhetoric or "pert" age):  It is my job to teach children that reasonable people can and do disagree.  I like to point out the existence of, and the reasons for, a tension between two political ideals, and make sure that the children are able to articulate the basic arguments of both "ends."    I don't want to impose a requirement that my kids think like me or agree with me in arenas where reasonable disagreement is, well, reasonable (and that's most of politics).  It's especially important when I'm teaching children other than my own, as I am doing with history.  The families I teach with share many values with me, but those same values can inform very different political positions!  Anyway, at this stage, neither am I asking the children to argue or articulate their own political or historical opinions.  Rather, I'm asking them to understand, and maybe to parrot back, the reasonable arguments behind each of opposing positions.  These, I hope, will incubate for a couple of years and help them develop opinions that really are their own.  And then they can discover the fun of attempting to convince and win over their reasonable opponents.

This has gotten long, so I'll continue in the next post, when I'll  talk about the rest of my threads:  [Update:  Missed one -- added it and reordered these] (6) roots of the so-called "war on terror," (7) the environmental movement, (8) party lines, (9) American mobility, (10) mass communication, and (11) selected Presidential biographies.  Can you guess which three presidential administrations I plan to highlight, and why?

Gratuitous geek post.

No reason, just a post (coincidentally, from a year ago today) that I came across while surfing aimlessly, on Wolfram's blog, about the powerful convenience of being able to embed images directly into lines of Mathematica code.  Nifty pics at the link, of interest to photo-manipulators, image processors, and the like.

I kind of miss playing with Mathematica.  Wonder if they'll ever come out with a homeschooler's math course based on it, because that would be awesome.  And we thought the TI-81 was cool back in 1990.

UPDATE:  It looks like there used to be a Mathematica Homeschool Kit, but all the info I can find is from 2003.

Should be thought-provoking no matter how you feel about population/environment.

Two quotes from an article I saw linked on FB recently:

"It’s no coincidence that most of those who are obsessed with population growth are post-reproductive wealthy white men: it’s about the only environmental issue for which they can’t be blamed."

"It’s time we had the guts to name the problem. It’s not sex; it’s money. It’s not the poor; it’s the rich."

As a side note, I'm always kind of surprised at how little attention is paid to reducing the amount of fuel we burn with non-essential air travel. This table from the Bureau of Transportation Services appears to show that (in 2005 at least) we burned about ten times as many gallons of gas/diesel in highway driving as we burned gallons of aviation fuel (domestically -- international travel is not included). I don't know how the two compare in terms of emissions per mile of human travel, or emissions per mile per ton of cargo carried; but surely airplanes burn a not-insignificant fraction of the total.   And what percentage of that goes for inessentials or luxuries, compared to the percentage of fuel burned by cars and trucks (including shipping)?  You just don't hear about it much...