Airline Requests That Passengers Use Restrooms Before Boarding Flight in Order to Weigh LessA Japanese airline (All Nippon Airways) has started asking its passengers to visit the restrooms before boarding their planes. ANA says it hopes this will allow its passengers to weigh less, and thus reduce carbon emissions. In fact, ANA is hoping that the weight saved will lead to a five-ton reduction in carbon emissions over a 30 day period.
Based on an average human bladder capacity of 15oz, if 150 people relieved themselves before boarding a flight, the flight would be a bit less than 150 pounds lighter. 150 pounds is a drop in the bucket compared to the near 93 tons of weight (maximum) that a Boeing airplane can weigh at take-off. Nevertheless, ANA is making sure its airline staff at boarding gates is encouraging passengers waiting to fly to relieve themselves before boarding.
My question is this: Where will ANA draw the line when it comes to its ridiculous demands of its passengers? If they are so concerned with reducing carbon emissions, why not ask their passengers to schedule hair cuts, cut their nails, blow their noses, wear skimpy clothing, and go without eating in the hours before boarding a plane? Sadly, it may come to that! LOL And yet all the while, ANA certainly doesn’t practice what it preaches – as I’m sure it loves to load its planes with high-dollar cargo from shipping companies, it oversells its seats – hoping that none will sit empty during flight, and ANA executives (like most CEOs) probably fly around the world in private jets – all increasing carbon emissions!
ANA sure has some nerve! – pushing their passengers to do the tiniest and most ridiculous things (for nothing) in the name of saving the planet! It reminds me of the Bible’s Pharisees, who often concocted ridiculous rules and regulations for others to follow, when in fact the Pharisees did not heed their own words!
Jesus said of these Pharisees, “Do not do what they do, because they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Everything they do is done for men to see” (Matthew 23:3B-5A). Just as ANA wishes to look good before the international community with its “carbon reducing” regulations, the Pharisees likewise loved to look good before others with the formation of their strict rules and regulations that were supposedly created in the name of living holy.
The question to consider: Where are “you” in regards to whether or not your practice what you preach? Do you burden those around you with your self-made rules and ideas, and then you live a different (often hidden) lifestyle of your own on the side – where you allow yourself to throw your own rules out the window?
The challenge for us is to be like Paul, who did not demand of others what he himself was not already doing. Paul said, “I urge you to imitate me. …I am sending you Timothy …He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church” (1 Corinthians 4:16-17). In other words, Paul told others, “Live like me! You see what I’m doing, so do likewise! Watch me live-out exactly what I preach – a life devoted to Christ, and then follow me!”
Can you, with good conscious, encourage others to live like you? Are you preaching and living the same thing? Are you living a life devoted to Christ? Are you living a life worth following? If you or I answer “no,” then there’s no better time to make a change than right now.
