Flight Shaming
Words by Jack Foster
This article is part of PULPCLIMATE week. CLICK HERE to join the facebook group. University of Sydney Students will be marching from Fischer Library at 10:00 AM on the 20th of September.
As Queensland and New South Wales battle, some of the worst bush fires in history, the consensus of the scientific community is that climate change is partially to blame.
Whilst bushfires are a natural disaster that are synonymous with Aussie summer, climate change has seen these events worsen. Warmer temperatures, mixed with dry air and no rain, have led to the destruction of Wordshomes and lives.
If you’re looking for what heroism looks like in our increasingly divided world, look no further than our emergency service men and women, who have risked their lives to save others and their homes.
Despite the obvious increase in extreme weather events throughout the world in recent times, the debate around human induced climate change is still ongoing.
We now live in a world where scientific fact can be confused with opinion. Australia’s Minister in charge of drought and natural disasters, David Littleproud has said as recently as last week that he doesn’t “know if climate change is manmade”. Whilst this reluctance to accept the science behind climate change in Australia is still ongoing, a social phenomenon has emerged in the past year from Europe, known as flight shaming.
Spearheaded by young climate activist, Greta Thunberg, it’s one of the newest ways climate change activists are seeking to combat human-induced warming of the planet. Originating in Sweden, where it is known as flygskam, the movement aims to combat the growing carbon footprint of travelers around the world. An anti-fly crusade, flight shaming has emerged less from explicit climate protesting, and more from an internal guilt, growing inside carbon-conscious people.
Flying is the most carbon intensive activity you can participate in. According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, emissions from air travel will be 70% higher in 2020 than in 2005, with a further 300-700% growth projected by 2050. Across Europe, in particular throughout Scandinavia, travellers are beginning to question their need to travel via air, and are moving more towards train and road methods of transportation.
Whilst the facilities are there for Europeans to travel via train and road from country to country, the nature of Australia’s geography means that often, air travel is the only option.
Guilt and anxiety is growing within carbon-conscious people and is showing no signs of slowing down.
This guilt and anxiety is impacting the social interactions people are having, through a reluctance to travel via plane.
Flight shaming is just one of the many impacts climate change has had on the mental health of people all over the world.
The flygskam movement is less about shaming others, and more about changing your own behaviour. Changing your own behaviour before virtue signalling onto others will tremendously help in the goal of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. Concerns are emerging that the growing anti-fly movement could see less people travelling to Australia from overseas locations, particularly Europe.
The Australian airline industry has taken a hit in recent times, with Virgin Australia slashing 750 jobs after coping a $349 million loss. Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce, has voiced his concerns about the growing flight shaming movement, saying it has the potential to damage the industry.
"There are campaigns in some parts of Europe to shame people into not taking flights. And various governments are considering new surcharges on airfares, similar to the 'sin taxes' on alcohol and cigarettes," said Joyce. "Think of the impact this would have on the global economy, on trade, on jobs, on tourism and on connecting isolated parts of the world, like Australia," he said. "The focus should be on how we reduce the impact of flying – not simply to stop doing it,” said Joyce.
As flight shaming continues to tighten its grip on European travellers, its emergence within Australia is growing day by day.