Should my eco-conscious husband park his dislike of flying?

Jenny and Teddy, retired and living on the border of France and Switzerland, try to minimise their carbon footprints: they heat their house with a heat pump, are vegetarian and hardly use the car. They rarely fly and haven’t taken long‑haul flights in 12 years; after a horrendous train journey to Scotland, Jenny now flies once a year to see family.

She wants a winter break in Madeira for warmth and escape, arguing it would save emissions compared with the Caribbean or Australia, and that train journeys to a sunny destination would be too long. Teddy rejects the Madeira trip not primarily for environmental reasons but because he no longer enjoys flying or being a tourist.

His former public‑health work involved extensive long‑haul travel, and he prefers trains; he also cites difficulties with hotels, sleep, managing diabetes, language barriers, steep volcanic terrain and potential medical or weather risks. He says he would feel annoyed to be overruled if forced to fly.

France, Switzerland, France–Switzerland border

eco conscious, carbon footprint, heat pump, vegetarian, long haul, train travel, madeira, france, switzerland, diabetes