To Fly or Not to Fly...
Air travel's real impact on climate change
After a well-needed and love-filled break in Sweden with my family, I am happy to be back in New York, getting ready for what I assume will be another ridiculously hot summer. Although it was wonderful to see the fam again, I can’t help but hate the only option to be reunited — flying.
Not only do the long hours for checking in, waiting, sitting on a plane, and then waiting again at the other airport to receive your luggage drain me, but I’m obviously also aware of the huge impact air travel has on our climate.
Flying is a true moral dilemma and one that is getting harder and harder to deal with. Is it possible to be a climate optimist and still fly? And if so, how do we justify those actions? Today’s newsletter serves as a conversation starter and an invitation to reflect on how much you’re flying, for what reasons, and if and how you could possibly cut down.
Because no matter what, we all have to cut down…
One flight every eight years
According to this article in The Guardian that was published in March 2022, we should take no more than one short-haul flight every three years and one long-haul flight every eight years. A short-haul flight is a flight lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours, and a long-haul flight extends 6 hours. In other words, if I were to fly “sustainably”, I should only visit my family once every eight years.
How often do you fly?
Shame Plane — This is how much ice your melting
If you wanted to know how much ice you’re melting on that one trip to London (you should), there’s a website for that! Shame Plane is a Swedish independent project, “spawned from pure curiosity” back in 2019, that lets you calculate your ice melting footprint depending on if you fly economy, business, or first class.
Apparently, I melted 3.6 m2 in my flight from Copenhagen to JFK, and between the two of us for our entire trip, we melted 15 square meters of Arctic ice! Might not seem as much, but if you have a look at this global flight map, you will understand that it starts to add up…
I’m flying too much
From the quick, minimal research I’ve conducted, I am flying too much. But I already knew this, which is why my anxiety is so high every time I fly. I do want to keep in close touch with my family back home but my established roots in the United States make it incredibly hard. Yes, you can facetime, but it’s not quite the same as sipping coffee in someone’s company or exchanging a warm hug, is it? For you who follow me on Instagram, you might know that we also have a baby on the way (YAY!), and of course, I want her to grow up knowing mormor och morfar and her Swedish roots, so the struggle is real!
As the climate optimist that I am, I’m vouching for electric planes and efficient bio-fuels in a near future, but I also know that even these technologies won’t be enough. I too have to do what I can to eliminate my footprint and that means being a lot more conscious about how often I fly and for what. That is why when my husband suggests that we fly to that wedding in DC, I say “absolutely not”, and we take the train instead. Or the car, because even driving is (most times) better than hauling yourself up in the sky!
Air travel results in a lower temperature change per passenger-kilometer than car travel on the long run; the integrated radiative forcing of air travel is on short- to medium time horizons much higher than for car travel. Per passenger-hour traveled however, aviation’s climate impact is a factor 6 to 47 higher than the impact from car travel.
What should you do?
The numbers are clear — we need to stop flying as much as we are! If you are in my position with family far away, that can be a tough reality to grapple with. How I justify flying home once a year is knowing that many others fly multiple times per week and couldn’t care less, and so compared to those people, my footprint is still significantly low.
However, I understand this thinking doesn’t help the bigger picture, which is why talking about the issue is so essential! Most people are not aware of how bad flying is for the environment and although we shouldn’t shame people into action, spreading a bit of awareness never hurts.
Become flight aware, be conscious of your travels, and stay communicative about your thoughts and efforts.
Don’t underestimate the power you have in impacting those around you and when it comes to climate action, we’re reaching a point in time when most people want to do the right thing. That means that we can shift norms and make it fun and cool to vacation locally, spend luxury time at home, or embark on that adventurous train trip instead of catapulting ourselves up in the air. Personally, I prefer a slow vacation so much over the stress of having to fly anyways!
If you have any thoughts or insights about flying, I’d love to hear them! Please drop a comment below!
News from me:
As you may have read in my previous letter, I had the opportunity to speak at the We Don’t Have Time x UNDP event on World Environment Day in Stockholm during the STHLM+50 event.
It was an incredible experience and if you want to see the speech you find it here!
Climate Optimism - Canada Bans Single-Use Plastics!
On Monday, June 20, Canada banned six common single-use plastics! Canada is now one of the only countries in the world to ban a list of single-use plastics, including plastic bags, cutlery, stir sticks, six-pack rings, straws, and takeout containers made from problematic plastics, and is the second country ever to ban exporting these items. This announcement marks a victory for our oceans and the marine life that call them home, and positions Canada as a global leader in efforts to reduce single-use plastics
Read more on the Oceanic Canada blog!