I have to be careful about what I say here...

... because I know a fair few people who fall into the category described here, in a study claiming that Britons are "addicted" to cheap flights.

If people are genuinely confused by all of this, here are some facts to help you think a little more seriously about your "addiction".

• The study claims 7 per cent - not 2 per cent as continually parroted by the airline industry - of all UK emissions are caused by air flights. If I were you, I would use that as a sound reason for taking anything this industry says with a large bumper pack of salt.
  
• When you're told that you need to plant a single tree for each short-haul flight you take, or two trees for each long haul flight you take, that covers your seat on the plane. Multiply the number of trees you plant or light bulbs your purchase by the number of seats on your plane, then try to visualise doing that for every single seat on every single flight around the world on a daily basis. Then multiply that by seven for each week, 30 for each month and 365 for each year. The numbers don't add up.
• The terms recycling and reusing should be considered last resorts. The only action that will make a different is to REDUCE your overall consumption.
• Giving up on city breaks doesn't mean the end of the world. Get on the Eurostar and go to Paris for a weekend or use it as a springboard to explore Europe by train. Better still, check out your local area for undiscovered spots or - God forbid - spent some quality, relaxing time at home with your family.
• The extreme weather conditions we're seeing now were caused by our consumption at least 20 years ago - in other words, back in the 80s when everything was much less than it was now. So if you think the floods were bad now, imagine what things are going to be like over the next 20 years - and all because we've made global warming and climate change anybody else's problem but our own.