Flight shaming - the travel industry's looming crisis with airline emissions
Schipol Amsterdam - one of Europe’s busiest airports
You can shun single use plastic, stay in renewable-energy-powered accommodations, cycle, go vegan. But if you’re an international traveller, there’s one environmental stain that’s impossible to avoid - the emissions from your flights. Flight shaming is a new global trend that wants to make you regret all those business class lounge selfies. And it may also take some of the buzz out of long-haul travel. Airlines are concerned. The travel industry should be too.
Amsterdam Schiphol - emissions abound
I recently announced on Instagram that I was reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s book, Eating Animals. I expressed some misgivings about my carnivorous ways. I was in the UK at the time visiting family. Someone commented “stop flying to the UK”.
That was my first “flight shaming” experience - and I’m a ripe target. I reckon I live pretty simply in most other respects by diet, energy and other measures. But my annual flight tally is appalling. These days, I tend to travel with budget airlines and mostly in economy. But I’m gonna guess I rack up 40 - 50 short and medium haul flights a year and a couple of long-haul flights too.
When celebrated young climate change activist Greta Thunberg travelled to New York to address the UN back in August, she travelled by yacht - drawing attention to aircraft emissions in the process. British commentator George Monbiot is especially fierce in calling out flying as a climate catastrophe. Aircraft emissions account for somewhere between 2% and 3% of all emissions. But it’s one of the most carbon intensive things you can do. A few hours of flying a year will put your carbon emissions above a significant percentage of the world’s population.
There are two core problems with aviation emissions. The first is that, unlike other forms of transport, there don’t seem to be any viable technological fixes on the horizon. The second is that aviation is more than a vacation indulgence. It’s central to our economic system and things like international relations.
What to do?
Difficult to know.
Recognising the problem is a healthy start. And recognising that international flights may become so toxic that a percentage of people may start to eschew international travel.
A recent report by UBS bank cited by Reuters said “A survey of more than 6,000 respondents in July and August showed that, on average, one in five travelers in the United States, France, Britain and Germany had cut air travel by at least one flight in the past year because of climate concerns.” That’s going to have an impact on the industry - if not on global emissions.
I’m in favour of taxing all high emissions activity - both as a deterrent to consumer behaviour, and a means of encouraging investment in alternatives. But this is a huge problem. It brings into focus the dismal idiocy of the world’s wealthiest people investing in space travel. If they’re really smart and want to give something back, they’d try and fix this planet first. They could start by pioneering low-emissions aviation.
For more, check these links from The Guardian, The Nation and Reuters.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/sep/21/travelsenvironmentalimpact.ethicalliving