Air Travel Angst

I received an e-mail a while ago, telling me about an international conference on peace and equality and sustainability and inviting me to attend - maybe even to submit a paper.

That was exciting. My first thought was hey, yes, that would be great. I believe passionately in peace and equality and sustainability and all that stuff.

But then I got to thinking about all those hundreds of people (probably including me) who would have to catch planes to attend such a conference and how much carbon that would release into the already dangerously compromised atmosphere and whether that is really the sort of thing we should be doing, wonderful as it would be to attend such an event.

And of course that made me think about my own travel habits and whether I should really be flying at all.

There's only 1.9 hectares of the world's surface available for each one of us. My partner and I live in a tiny, English cottage with just 350 square feet of living space. We have no car, no central heating, no TV, hi-fi, washer, dryer, dishwasher, microwave or cell phone. We recycle everything, compost, use low-wattage light bulbs, wear second-hand clothes, grow our own vegetables, eat vegetarian, organic and mostly local food and never enter a supermarket. Yet despite all that, my ecological 'footprint' is still at least 4.56 hectares - which is MORE THAN DOUBLE MY FAIR SHARE OF THE EARTH'S RESOURCES. You know why? Because each year I make one return transatlantic flight (and sometimes a couple of US domestic flights as well) to visit my children and grandchildren. Without that, my footprint would drop to 1.5 and I would be able to claim that I was actually using a little bit less than my planetary entitlement. That's how significant air travel is. Jet planes not only use up vast amounts of oil, they pour huge quantities of carbon dioxide and other chemicals into the air and do so at a level of the atmosphere where it causes the most damage. In terms of the impact it makes on the planet, one transatlantic flight by one person is equivalent to a whole year's worth of driving a car.

At the rate our species is currently trashing the Earth, we won't have a livable planet at all unless we curb our wasteful use of resources and stop our polluting habits. Not sometime in the future, but RIGHT NOW. Americans are the worst offenders, with a massive and totally unsustainable average 'footprint' of 9.7, but most Europeans are also way, way over the average.

I said all this to the woman who sent me the invitation. She wrote back to say that she understood my point but that she believed the conference was really important, and said reassuringly - if a bit patronizingly - that "one world conference won't destroy the Earth."

Trouble is, neither does my one annual flight to see my family. Neither does any 'one' action. That's precisely the trouble. It's the cumulative 'ones' of all of us which create the problem. So each of us has to start with herself, here, now today. Every decision counts. The solution, just like the problem, will come from our cumulative actions. For what is pushing our ecosystems towards total collapse is the sum total of all our little, seemingly innocuous 'ones', particularly in the US and western Europe.

So I wrote back to her, saying that rather than coming together in huge crowds to talk about peace, I think we should 'think globally, but act locally' and put all our energy into withdrawing support for the consumerist monster we have created. Which means we must stop guzzling oil and wasting water, stop supporting multinational corporations, stop being wasteful, gluttonous and selfish in our use of resources, clean up our act, (each one of us, individually, day by day, decision by decision, right here in our homes and communities), stop buying - and stop flying. International conferences, great as they are, are a luxury we simply cannot afford. Not any longer, with the polar icecaps melting fast and the climate going haywire. Equality and peace are meaningless if all that's left is dead oceans, bare, barren soil and perhaps the occasional cockroach.

It's easy enough to preach. But the issue for me remains a deeply personal one. Since I am living in England, I can easily travel in Europe by far less polluting means of transport such as trains and ferries. And I do. But to cross the Atlantic and back by ship would cost me an entire year's pension in each direction. Yet I can't bear the thought of not seeing my children and grandchildren at least once a year. So at this point in my life I know that I am part of the problem instead of part of the solution.

It's not a very comfortable feeling.

© Marian Van Eyk McCain 2007