Quit air travel for leisure.
Last month, my partner came home with a naughty grin and said “I booked us tickets to Hawaii for your birthday”. A few years ago, I would have jumped with joy. Today, I don’t want to go. We pack our bags tonight and leave tomorrow morning. In-spite of being grateful for the present, I still don’t want to go. There is zero excitement from my side. I would have done a ‘what I packed’ list but should I be beating my drum about something that isn’t honorable ?
Air travel is one of the most damaging activities you can do to cause indirect harm to the fellow beings on the planet. Going on a cruise or private jet is much worse, but I am fairly certain that those activities will not be a part of my life. Last year, I quit air travel for leisure. The only flight I took in 2018 was to go see my new born niece. I had to draw the line somewhere. I wasn’t being a good human if I didn’t go see my sister after she gave birth. I could justify that somehow. But not Hawaii. Someone has to suffer for my ability to lounge on a beach ? It feels wrong. I am not alone in this. Peter Kalmus, climate physicist at NASA hasn’t flown since 2012 !! He takes the train from LA to Chicago to go see his parents. “I get a lot of work done without distractions along the way”, he says !! That’s wonderful. He talks of slow travel : a way to interact with local communities where ever you go because you are dependent on the low carbon and package free version of the convenience products sold to tourists. This is travel !! I always assumed it only happens when I fly to some exotic destination. We need more climate leadership from the science community. We cant write a paper and expect the politicians to convert it into policy anymore. The most common argument I hear in defense of continuing with high carbon lifestyle : “future tech will solve everything. I needn’t give up my lifestyle. These little things done matter.” My partner says these lines all the time. But do you think the NASA guy who authored all this work isn’t aware of future tech ? This sort of future optimism sometimes dilutes the need of the hour right now.
It’s time for me to declare a no-fly pact with myself. The guilt is weighing me down. I don’t quite know how to do this though. My parents live in India. Do I never see them ? At the beginning of the year, I told myself that I will allow one domestic flight and one international flight per year. That was the ‘moderation’ I agreed upon to be a better human to my community. But I still cant seem to digest it. How is everyone around me so obliviously happy while I marinate in angst ? I am going to Hawaii and am sad about it. It feels like I am heading to take a test that I know I will fail. #failure #thisLife
I hear you Archana. Each and every time I hear someone (or myself in fact ) saying- these small things dont matter, I get upset. But yeah, Im guilty mysefl. Flew over to Sri Lanka twice in the last 5 months. Planning a Greek holidays which would involve a flight of 3 hours duration. Do I want to quit it? Yes… but not really. I tell myself- I use public transport to commute daily, love going by train for holiday in my country. Im good. (?) But I love travel in Asia so much, cant think of quitting it – or perhaps I could go there by train/bus- but this would mean qutting my job-no one gives you a 2 months holidays…So perhaps my goal would be to limit my air travel to one per year…