Yes, I recycle. Yes, I sold my car and now use public transport alternatives. Yes, I’m vegetarian. But truthfully, I know that my good work will mean little when I take long haul flights every year. Coming from a multi-cultural family, with half living in the UK and half in Cairo, I find myself in an awkward situation. Stopping my flights would mean losing contact with my family, yet I also feel so guilty about the environmental impacts of taking long-haul flights.
So, what can we all do to try to reduce our carbon footprint? Is the only option simply not to fly?
- End non-essential flying
Do we really need to holiday abroad? The beaches of Bali and South Africa can easily be switched for Cornwall’s, accessed by public transport in most cases too. So called ‘staycations’ are rising in popularity and it’s easy to see why when living in the UK. We can surf in Cornwall, ski in Scotland and immerse ourselves in a multitude of lesser-known British microcultures.
Essentially, if there’s no imperative to fly, then don’t. Holidays can be taken at home and business meetings can take place over skype. Europe in particular, is very accessible by boat and rai for holidays, significantly reducing our carbon footprint.
- Carbon Offset your flights
I’ve heard this being referred to as a very ‘wealthy and masculinist way’ to deal with the issue of aviation pollution. I met one lady who scorned headlines about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s offsetting this year, saying ‘typical, wealthy people just throwing money at environmental issues and thinking it’s a solution’. But, for people who do fly, it’s probably better to offset than not.
While I’m still flying each year to see family abroad, paying to offset my flights is a good decision, even if it does overlook the real issue – flying each year.
- Fly with commercial airlines
I’m assuming that not many people reading this, own private aircrafts or fly business, but if you do, think about how this affects your carbon footprint. Flying economy with a commercial airline should reduce the carbon footprint per passenger and reduce the overall number of planes in the air. If everyone taking private flights switched to public ones, the number of planes in the sky would certainly reduce.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in particular, have faced backlash for supporting environmental causes whilst still flying regularly on private jets, increasing their carbon footprint well above the average person.
- Reduce your consumptive air miles
So, let’s assume that you don’t fly at all. Even with this lifestyle choice, there are still some ways that you can reduce your air miles as a whole.
Almost everything we buy in the consumerist era has undergone a long transportation process before it arrives on our shop’s shelves. As consumers, we can choose to buy products which have less transport miles and preferably have not flown at all, reducing our carbon footprint.
In the summer we could try and get our fruit from local pick your own farms. Not only is this a fun day out, but it reduces the long air miles of fruits like strawberries, cherries, raspberries and pears. Then, when it comes to fashion try to buy only from British suppliers or start shopping more in charity shops. This is a great way to donate money as well as find new outfits. You can apply this ethos to everything you buy, seeking to find the most locally sourced products possible.
While this may sound like a lot of work for the average person, aviation is one of the biggest polluters, so if we all ended non-essential flights, then it would make a big difference. When talking with an aviation lobbyist, she told me that the point is not to cease all air travel entirely, which tends to put people off making changes. Rather, it is to end all non-essential travel and in doing so we will see a huge reduction in our carbon footprints.
So, can some of these methods help to reduce our collective carbon footprint? Or is a more radical alternative needed… should we end aviation entirely? After all, it is a luxury.
By Joanna Neve
DISCLAIMER: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY AND DO NOT REPRESENT THE VIEWS OR OPINIONS OF COMPASS MAGAZINE AS A WHOLE OR THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY.