Flyon and Cleared to Fly Again 2018

First published March 2018. Updated May 2019.

The flying less movement has been energised by citizens making a consequent effort to reach a low-carbon footprint non just at home through, for case, recycling, using more energy-efficient appliances, or driving less, but as well in activities abroad from home that have often involved flight such every bit holidaymaking and piece of work-related conferences and meetings. Although the size of the movement is not known, it involves a growing number of people from many different professional person backgrounds in every continent. Some of its about visible advocates are environmentalist Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Towns movement, Swedish sports commentator and gold medal Olympian Bjorn Ferry, Swedish opera singer Malena Ernman and her girl Greta Thunberg, Maja Rosén and Lotta Hammar, founders of We Stay Grounded, and climate scientists such equally Alice Larkin and Kevin Anderson in the UK, Peter Kalmus and Katharine Hayhoe in The states.

Key strands of their message, every bit articulated by some of its most visible figures, can be succinctly outlined in the following points:

Climate modify is an urgent upshot

We tend to retrieve of climate change as a problem that tin exist addressed with incremental changes in technology and behaviour aiming at lower energy consumption in a more than or less distant futurity. Nonetheless, what matters are non levels of technological efficiency in say 2080 but cumulative greenhouse emissions which could trigger a tipping bespeak in climate dynamics. This means that we take a limited 'carbon budget' that must be adhered to if average global temperatures are to stay beneath what has been agreed as being a safe threshold ¹. The size of this budget depends on the probability of exceeding the 1.v or ii degrees threshold between acceptable and unsafe climate change ². To run into the commitment of the Paris Agreement of keeping temperatures 'well below 2 degrees' (and aiming towards 1.five degrees) nosotros take a carbon budget of 655 billion tonnes of CO2 (from 2020), and at the current rate of emissions this budget volition be consumed within 18 years. If rich countries are to award the principle of equity enshrined in the Paris Agreement and brand a greater mitigation effort, they accept to cut carbon emissions by more than ten% per yr ³. The problem is that adapting everyday technologies to new energy systems can take decades, and therefore in that location is no culling merely to reduce free energy demand ⁴. This means changes in lifestyles ⁵, and for those who have normalised loftier-carbon lifestyles this means flying less or not flight at all ^vi.

Climatic change is nearly equity

The notion of carbon budgets reframes climate change as a zero-sum game. The more carbon is emitted by some, the less tin can be emitted by others. Discussions about the responsibleness for reducing emissions have tended to focus on emissions by countries. Turning their focus to individuals, recent reports by Oxfam ^vii and the French economists Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty have shown that the richest 10% of the global population is responsible for fifty% of carbon emissions ⁸. Climate scientist Kevin Anderson has estimated that if this privileged group were to reduce its emissions to those of the boilerplate European citizen, global carbon emissions would exist reduced past 33%, within one or two years ⁹. Poor people who will be most affected by climatic change are those who emit less carbon and whose well-being could be significantly improved with even modest increases in energy consumption. At that place is i pie for all but at the moment there are some who are eating most of information technology while others choice at the crumbs that fall from the table.

Flying is non normal

In western societies flush segments of the population accept come to recall of flying as a normal aspect of everyday life or at least a normal attribute of holidaymaking and certain jobs such equally academic research. Yet, only two-3% of the world's population flies internationally in whatever given year and 95% ¹⁰ have never been on a plane ¹¹. Seen from a global perspective, flight is an elite form of transport. Fifty-fifty in some western societies, flying is the privilege of a few. In the UK 15% of the population is responsible for seventy% of all flights ¹².

Graphic ane. Most flights away in England are taken by a small, affluent part of the population. Credit afreeride.org

Flight is artificially inexpensive

Worldwide more 420 new airports, 121 new runways, 205 runway extensions, 262 new terminals and 175 last extensions are currently being planned or under construction ¹³. The aviation industry expects the number of passengers to double to 8.2 billion in 2037 ^xiv. But this growth is being aided by low-revenue enhancement or tax-free fuels ^xv and a lack of regulation regarding carbon emissions – aviation has repeatedly been left exterior international climate negotiations such as COP21 and current plans to offset aviation emissions after 2020 have fundamental flaws ¹⁶. The current system of mass air travel relies on a number of policies and those policies tin exist changed ¹⁷. The expansion of aviation is not inevitable.

Beware of techno-optimism…

Despite claims by the aviation manufacture such rapid growth is not 'dark-green' ^xviii. There is no such matter as sustainable aviation. Innovation in fuel efficiency and less polluting fuels are not enough to brand aviation a clean mode of transport, especially considering the current and expected rapid growth in demand ¹⁹. Norway's airport operator has noted that electric planes will exist bachelor past 2050 to operate curt-haul flights ²⁰. There are at least four problems with this statement. Firstly, it still has to be proved that large commercial electric planes will be available by and then and that they will deliver what is being promised today ²¹. It is important to remember that in the early stages of development new technologies ofttimes go through a hype phase in which the technical problems are consciously downplayed while the potentials are overstated then as to concenter investment. Secondly, even if commercial electric planes could work for shorter distances, long-haul flights, which in the U.k. accounts for around 72% of aviation emissions, would nevertheless operate with conventional fuel ²². Thirdly, regardless of whether electrical planes are bachelor then, the key concern is to reduce emissions as fast and as widely as possible inside the next 2 decades and so every bit to accept a fair take chances of fugitive dangerous climate change. Correct now, the merely way to reduce emissions significantly in aviation is past reducing demand. Finally, aviation volition consume a very big function of the carbon budget by 2050 ²³. In a 2015 report, the research organisation Öko-Institut warned the European Parliament that international aviation's CO2 emissions may reach a share of 22% of global emissions by 2050. This share is greater in countries where aviation is more prominent. Projections for the United Kingdom prove that if the government is committed to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees 71% of the national emissions budget will be consumed by aviation past 2050 ²⁴. It is possible that other forms of commercially viable air travel such as air ships will sally that volition brand low-carbon aviation possible ²⁵. Investment is being put into this possibility, merely for at present avoiding dangerous climate change ways reducing aviation demand and changing one's lifestyle appropriately ²⁶.

… and don't sweeten the message

The need to address climatic change has been discussed for iii decades. During this time letters of promise have nurtured complacency and achieved very footling: light-green-business firm emissions proceed growing. Reporting conspicuously and bluntly about the serious risks ahead is more than effective than spinning a cheerful yarn about climate change every bit recent research suggests ²⁷.

Integrity matters

When communicating science, information technology is important to 'walk the talk' ²⁸. If science says that current trends in aviation are incompatible with avoiding dangerous climate change, then it makes sense to human action appropriately, otherwise one's talk may be interpreted past others as inexpensive virtue signalling. Lecturing people about the risks of climate change and its effects on the planet and poor people while sitting on a plane volition ultimately weaken trust in scientists ²⁹.

Prototype ane. Climate activist Greta Thunberg on the railroad train, leading by example.

Individual versus commonage action is a simulated dichotomy

Reducing emissions urgently requires decisive action by governments and big business organisation to put in place regulations and infrastructures that enable individuals to modify their habits. Notwithstanding, the argument that a focus on private action diverts attention from systemic change is premised on a simulated dichotomy. Individual action does thing because information technology is a catalyst for collective activity. Four interrelated issues to consider:

a) Never underestimate the power of small, peaceful minorities

Near probably merely a small office of the population will willingly fly less or stop flying. Just small minorities tin can be powerful minorities and their gestures matter, especially when, every bit is often the case with frequent flyers, these people occupy influential positions and their voices tin can be heard more loudly than others. The actions of a small simply visible segment of the population could exist a symbolic merely essential catalyst for wider cultural change. Weren't the suffragette, abolitionist, and American ceremonious rights movements initially made up of a small number of individuals committed to positive change?

b) If you decide to fly less y'all are inspiring others

People fly less when others around them, especially influential figures, fly less or stop flying. Research past Steve Westlake plant that of those who know such an private, around half fly less as a issue, and around three quarters say knowing that person has changed their attitudes ^xxx. When communicated effectively, the action of an private sends ripples beyond the many social relations that each of the states is part of – local communities, work places, professional associations, hobby and sports societies ³¹. The larger the number of these distinct settings where action is taken the more probable it is that stance dynamics will exist flipped. So if y'all decide to fly less, make sure others know well-nigh it.

c) … and y'all are creating infinite for ambitious policies

'Political will' is needed to attain radical mitigation in all sectors of the economy. But politicians cannot atomic number 82 without followers. Enquiry conducted from 2014 to 2018 by Rebecca Willis from Dark-green Alliance on how climatic change looks from the politician'south indicate of view found that most British politicians understood the need to act on climate but it was not straightforward for them to do so. Reasons for this included the fact that climate modify was not notwithstanding something discussed equally part of mainstream politics and talking virtually climate could exist a 'career-limiting move'. Some other reason was that 'politicians experience under very picayune force per unit area to deed on climate change. They report express involvement from their constituents, and need to discover means to make climate action relevant to the daily lives and concerns of the electorate ³².' Post-obit the 'climate jump' of 2019 United kingdom politicians at present need to respond to college levels of public concern. A key insight from this research all the same is that if political will cannot exist without public consent, with your personal actions yous are contributing to brand ambitious policies possible.

In a nutshell

Atmospheric scientist Peter Kalmus summarises the argument: 'Collective action enables private activity (past shifting systems) and individual action enables commonage activeness (by shifting cultural norms). Visible, conspicuous private activeness is also collective action. Nosotros won't get a carbon fee and dividend, for instance, until the grassroots care enough well-nigh climate change ³³.'

Flying probably dominates your emissions

In 2016 the greenhouse emissions per capita in the European Wedlock was 8.7 tonnes of carbon (measured in CO2-equivalent) ³⁴. Just one round transatlantic flying (London - New York) in economy / motorbus class produces ii.76 tonnes per passenger ³⁵. So if flying is currently an integral aspect of your lifestyle, i of the most effective things yous tin can practice to prevent climate breakdown is to wing less.

Flying less is about living within planetary boundaries ³⁶

The annual emissions budget per person per year required by 2050 in order to stabilize warming below 2 degrees is ii.1 tonnes and for 1.5 degrees it is less than one tonne ³⁷. Since the world is decades abroad from viable clean flight technologies, flight as usual has no place in a liveable planet ³⁸.

Flying less is about positive change

Flying less is non about 'sacrifice' or limiting one's choice. Instead it should be seen as making a positive change in one's life, a rediscovery of the pleasures of slow travel and elementary living ³⁹. Above all it is a commitment to 'live with the future', as if the climate mattered and as if we cared for our children, future generations and the poor.

Image 2. Images of simple and fulfilling living from the Instagram account of Aarne Granlund, a sustainability researcher living in Helsinki. Aarne enjoys fly fishing in waters near Helsinki or in Lapland where he travels using extremely low-carbon methods.

Flying less is about exploring all available options

People who cease flying or brainstorm flying less often talk about the pleasures of discovering that one's lifestyle can be re-set ^xl when non-flying options are properly considered and that aviation is non as necessary as it may seem – even if you lot are a travel writer as Evelina Utterdahl has demonstrated ⁴¹! Frequent flyers including many academics should take an opportunity to re-set their values and rethink why they fly and whether it is strictly necessary ⁴². Exercise I really need to nourish that conference ⁴³? Why non an on-line presentation? Would I attend information technology if it took identify in a less attractive place? Am I really attending considering of the benefits to my piece of work or because of the tourism opportunities it provides? How much is flying related to condition seeking in academia and other jobs? Isn't information technology possible to go along updated about your research field by using the many on-line resources available? Is flying really unavoidable or is it that I am reluctant to change my habits? Work places can help in promoting a new civilization of doing business organization and research. For example, the Tyndall Heart for Climate Change Research has issued guidelines for helping their own staff to consider every not-flying option possible ⁴⁴. This is at present existence used past other institutions.

Flying less does not mean giving upward holidays abroad

Although long-distance travel past train and ship does non currently receive the aforementioned back up as airport expansion, in Europe it is still possible to travel comfortably by these ways of transport. The flying less motion hopes that enough people will demand and use lower carbon land and sea travel options and so that somewhen information technology becomes easier to visit distant places without jumping on a plane. This was the aim of Kate Andrews, co-founder of Loco2 ⁴⁵, a London-based start up whose mission is to make booking a train in Europe as piece of cake as booking a flight. Many people plan their railway journeys with the help of The Man in Seat 61 ⁴⁶.

A growing movement

Flight is and so engrained in the lifestyles of more affluent segments that the possibility that old in the near hereafter people may wing less, much less, may seem implausible. Nevertheless contempo developments suggest that what we regard every bit normal in travel can change faster than some people realize. In Sweden, the debate about flying has been taking identify in mainstream media since Jan 2018 and is now part of everyday conversations. Celebrities such as Olympian gold medallist and Sports Goggle box presenter Björn Ferry and opera singer Malena Ernman, and ordinary citizens such as mothers Maja Rosén ⁴⁷ and Lotta Hammar who launched the campaign Flight Free 2019 (Flygfritt 2019 ⁴⁸), take played a key function in raising awareness. According to Agence France-Presse ⁴⁹, 'in March 2019 the World Wildlife Foundation published a survey indicating that most 1 in v Swedes had chosen to travel by rail rather than by air in order to minimise their ecology touch ⁵⁰.' According to the same source, 'a survey published in Sweden's leading travel mag, Vagabond, said 64 per cent of those who travelled abroad less last year did so considering of climate reasons.' A carve up survey past Swedish Radio showed that the climate is the near important political topic for immature people today. Afterward a sustained growth in the number of airline passengers for almost 10 years (from 31 meg in 2009 to more than than 39 million in 2018) growth of international flights slowed down in 2018 (from 9% to 4%) and there were fewer domestic and international charter flights than in the previous twelvemonth. While the hot summer and the problems faced by local budget airlines accept been noted as plausible causes, data for the first quarter of 2019 show a continuation of trends registered in 2018 (378,000 fewer passengers with respect to the aforementioned menstruation in the previous yr representing a 4.5% fall in demand ⁵¹). It is being suggested that the new aviation revenue enhancement ⁵² introduced in April 2018 as well equally the growing awareness about aviation's bear upon on climate may besides explicate this trend.

Image 3. Citizens in Sweden, United Kingdom, Denmark, Belgium, French republic, Germany and Canada are pledging to stay on the footing side by side year. Credit Flight Free United kingdom.

The debate about flying less has spread to Finland. According to sustainability researcher Aarne Granlund ⁵³, the debate gained momentum at the end of 2018 and is taking identify in a wide range of contexts from youth organisations, the church and the education system, to some political parties, some big corporations and the sports world. A survey conducted in March 2019 ⁵⁴ shows that 'Four out of five Finns consider that urgent activity is needed to mitigate climate alter' and a third of the population has calculated its ain carbon footprint. Interestingly, 'About xl% of the Finns have reduced flight because of climate reasons. About the same share of the respondents intend to fly less within the next five years. A piddling less than one-half (45%) accept travelled by air over the past year'. A Facebook group called "Maata pitkin matkustavat", connecting people committed to ground travel, has organised its own flying less travel off-white.

Signs of an incipient new civilization of travel in Scandinavia are visible in the decisions of newspapers in Sweden and Denmark to refocus their travel sections to embrace domestic and European destinations easily accessible past public transport. Sweden's tertiary most popular forenoon newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet, is halving the number of reports about destinations further than a five hour flight, and doubling the number of articles about destinations in the Nordic countries. According to Associated Printing ⁵⁵, Politiken, '1 of Denmark's main newspapers is ceasing domestic air travel and reducing international flights for assignments to a bare minimum. [...] The paper'southward travel department will [now] embrace...destinations easily reachable by public transportation.' In the midst of these developments, train bookings are rising. According to Agence France-Presse ⁵⁶, rider numbers at state railroad train operator SJ reached a record 32 million in 2018 'a 21 per cent boost in business travel during the 2018-2019 winter, and the government has announced plans to reintroduce night trains to major European cities before the end of its mandate in 2022.' In 2018 Interrail ticket sales increased by l%. ' Catherine Edwards reports that 'Sweden made a commitment in its spring budget to invest 40 million kronor (iii.8 meg euros) on investigating culling methods of transport to flying, including overnight trains to the continent ⁵⁷.

Elsewhere in Europe the number of articles in the mainstream media about climate and aviation has grown considerably in the concluding few months, post-obit the publication of the IPCC report on 1.5 degrees and the exponential rise of the climate move, specially Fridays for Climate and Extinction Rebellion.

Image four. The Times Weekend supplement from 1 June 2019 encouraging readers to enjoy low-carbon travel.

Flying less policies are first to be discussed and / or adopted past a growing number of European academic institutions. Examples include Bristol University, Edinburgh Academy, Lancaster Environs Heart, Britain Innovation Agency, the Met Part, Lund University Heart for Sustainability Studies, ETH Zürich.

On the other side of the Atlantic, for the first fourth dimension the Biennial Briefing of Cultural Anthropology took identify online in 2018 in guild to reduce travel-related carbon emissions and to facilitate a broader participation from academics facing visa restrictions ⁵⁸. Calls are being made for other large conferences to follow adjust. Anthropologist Jason Hickel has called for an end of the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) ⁵⁹ arguing that in an age of dangerous climatic change, unnecessary flights cannot exist morally justified and become against the professional ethics lawmaking of the AAA which states that 'Anthropological researchers must do everything in their power to ensure that their inquiry does not impairment the safety of the people with whom they work.' He calls on anthropologists to step frontwards and bring together others who are already working to create a low-carbon research culture: 'We as anthropologists – we as the AAA – have the opportunity to lead on this front, just as we led on anti-racism and anti-colonialism in the past. We can prepare an example that other disciplines and professional associations volition follow. Climate scientists are already taking this step. We should be right behind them. The ethical imperative is clear: information technology's fourth dimension to terminate the annual meetings in their present form and come up with a safe, just, and sustainable alternative. (…) I accept no doubt that this shift would attract landslide back up among anthropologists eager to help usher in a amend world. Let's brand information technology happen, starting in 2018. Nosotros take little time to lose.'

Negotiating inertias in work and travel cultures and infrastructures

Manifestly attempts to significantly reduce i's carbon footprint face many constraints, as the guidelines to reduce work-related flying issued by the Tyndall Centre acknowledge. These constraints range from expectations at piece of work places to spend a express amount of coin and time travelling, to practicalities such as when travelling long distances with small children (for case, to visit relatives abroad). The inertias of the system are there constraining individuals' desires and aspirations for low-carbon travel. The flying less movement places the emphasis on rethinking what is necessary and possible at a personal level within existing constraints, while at the aforementioned fourth dimension supporting wider efforts for profound changes in working cultures and travel systems.

Acknowledgements

Aarne Granlund kindly provided information about developments in Finland. The online #flyingless community is a identify of collegial debate and inspiration.

Appendix

These are some resources to larn more than about the flying less motility. Please note that the list is not exhaustive.

Video with Kevin Anderson on aviation and climate alter.

Video about Peter Kalmus: find out how and why a climate scientist felt compelled to shrink his carbon footprint by xc%.

Video with Alice Larkin: Aviation, shipping and the Paris Understanding.

Atypical Lifestyle Choices: an exploratory workshop.

Petitions to back up a low-carbon academic civilisation

International: Flying less: Reducing academia's carbon footprint

Denmark: An open up letter to Danish universities: Let u.s.a. show the manner towards a more aggressive climate agenda

Initiatives to reduce aviation

We Stay on the Basis

Flight Free United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland

A Free Ride: Entrada for a fairer way to fly

No Fly Climate Sci

Flight less: Reducing academia'southward carbon footprint

Call on Universities and Professional Associations to Greatly Reduce Flying

Stay Grounded

Stay on the Ground

Reflections almost flying less in academia

Anthropology: In an era of climate change, our ideals code is articulate: Nosotros need to end the AAA annual meeting

Archaeology: Decarbonising archeology

Ethnomusicology: Academic flight, climatic change, and ethnomusicology: Personal reflections on a professional problem

We don't take time to fly to a conference

Advocating flight less in leisure pursuits

Stone climbing (past Kevin Anderson): Meltdown: Climbers and climate change

Surfing (article about Fergal Smith past Paul Evans): Fergal Smith's Big Idea

Surfing (video about Fergal Smith): Beyond the Break

Other

Book

Beyond Flying: Rethinking Air Travel in a Globally Connected World.

Movement

Movement is the crossing of space past people, objects, upper-case letter, ideas and other data. It is either oriented, and therefore occurs betwixt an origin and one or more destinations, or it is more akin to the idea of merely wandering, with no real origin or destination.

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Lifestyle

A lifestyle is a limerick of daily activities and experiences that give sense and pregnant to the life of a person or a group in time and space.

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Mobility

For the Mobile Lives Forum, mobility is understood equally the process of how individuals travel across distances in gild to deploy through time and space the activities that make upward their lifestyles. These travel practices are embedded in socio-technical systems, produced past ship and communication industries and techniques, and past normative discourses on these practices, with considerable social, environmental and spatial impacts.

En savoir plus x

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Source: https://forumviesmobiles.org/en/opinions/12600/flying-less-movement

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