One of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is addressing climate change.
I interviewed Alex North for the World Nomads Travel Podcast, she’s not a climate scientist nor is she an activist. But she has done some research into why, for the globally minded individual, people are rejoicing the return of overnight sleepers on train rather than flying. This is what she had to say.
“Yeah, I think partly how we are going to do this together is to be aware of exactly how much carbon flying and traveling does emit into the atmosphere. And to put that in concrete, understandable terms so that we can make decisions and trade offs in our behaviour. Then we can at least be prepared as consumers when the time comes that the corporations as well are forced to reckon with climate change.
I think that’s one of the most important things that we should keep in mind is that flying should not be framed as this really glamorous thing that we do lightly. Flying, especially the take-off and the landing portions are so, so fuel intensive, that it’s just not something anybody should be applauding to fly to another city, to have lunch and then fly back the same day. That is simply a behaviour that we cannot justify anymore.
However, and I speak for myself as an American who lives in Germany. And seeing my family comes with a huge carbon footprint. There are certain trips that we simply can’t take without omitting a huge amount of carbon into the atmosphere. And I don’t know that there are really other realistic ways for somebody to travel across the Pacific or across the Atlantic, in order to have relationships with people in other countries. In order to still take part in their careers. But to at least be able to think about that and to reflect critically on those decisions I think is already a good step.
As well as making sure that we fly directly whenever we can. That we don’t load up planes with a bunch of heavy baggage and unnecessary gear, that we could perhaps rent on location at the destination. Rather than buying a surfboard to bring with us and then bring it back.
And then also choosing to use transportation like the locals do when we are at destinations. Now the flights to some exotic location already comes with a lot of carbon emissions. And if we choose not to take taxis but rather to take the bus or to walk or to bike, we can at least get rid of the carbon emissions on the back end of our travel, at least when we’re there.
I think we live in a globalized world and many of us have friends and family and careers spread all around the world. And to just tell people you can’t fly because it’s bad for the environment isn’t realistic. Most people are not in a position where they can just step outside of this system. That’s not realistic to ask people to do that. Furthermore, I think as travellers, we know that there are so many wonderful things that come with travel that just opens our perspective and makes us more empathetic and compassionate for different ways of life. And we as consumers really do have an incentive to preserve this magic of travel for future generations. We want to make this possible for our children and our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren. We don’t want them to also never be able to travel and we also don’t want them to miss out on seeing the wonderful wonders of nature that we’ve been able to see.
One should absolutely do their due diligence to see what sort of carbon offsetting initiatives this airline is actually investing in. Are they planting trees, are they rolling out clean energy sources in developing nations? What exactly are they doing? There is definitely a lot of information. There’s conflicting information about how effective different methods of carbon offsetting are.
I think that the prevailing opinion among climate activists right now is that investing in clean energy sources is one of the best ways to reduce carbon around the world and so it really depends. One should look at where is this carbon offsetting money going. And if the initiatives that are done by the airplane, or by the airline, aren’t really in line with what you believe is a responsible use of those funds, then you can always find a different organization to donate.
I don’t have the answers, I’m not a climate scientist, but I think that at least looking at these numbers, has been for me personally, very eye opening. And has made me be able to travel more critically and think more honestly about how my behaviour and how my adventures really do effect the planet for future generations.”
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