Commuting from LA to Berkeley by plane is horrifying from an emissions point of view and a chilling indictment of our transit infrastructure, our housing crisis, our remote learning culture, etc., etc.
Granting all this, if you do the math, what he’s doing is well within the emissions range of the normal car commutes of millions of Americans. There are many, many people driving cars to work in the ordinary way who are doing more climate harm.
https://www.berkeleyside.org/2023/05/15/uc-berkeley-la-plane-commute-grad-student
I’m not trying to forgive this commute, because I think it’s bad. But I think it’s a teachable moment. We recognize it as ludicrous, but it’s within what we accept in other contexts for no good reason.