I’d never really flown much – just a handful of holidays with my family.
I hadn’t flown for about nine years before I took some time off to travel around East Asia and Australasia where I learnt that I loved mountain trekking, scuba diving and experiencing other cultures.
I came back to a new job. After much anticipation, I got to go to our Poland office in Katowice for a two-day ‘Product All Hands’ meeting. This seemed like such a great perk – I love travelling! Some other people from other parts of Eastern Europe had never flown before in their life. I booked my flight for the weekend before and took the opportunity to visit Krakow and the amazing yet harrowing Auschwitz.
The following weekend, I was on another flight, this time to Taiwan for a four-day conference in Taipei where we tested our product. Again, I took the opportunity to see an exciting new city. I was put up in by far the fanciest hotel I’ve ever set foot in, and I enjoyed some wonderful restaurants, the hotel spa and generally living the high life. I even stayed for an extra week so I could experience more of Taiwan, scuba dive off an island off the east coast and trek in the mountains. It was an absolute dream!
A few months after these trips I stumbled upon a ‘Heading For Extinction’ talk by my local Extinction Rebellion group. I was completely taken back. I’d always thought I’d been ‘doing my bit’, reducing my plastic waste, not owning a car, and going vegan, but the problem was a couple of orders of magnitude worse than I’d thought. The level of injustice was heartbreaking.
I’d always thought I’d been ‘doing my bit’, but the problem was much worse than I’d thought.
I did WWF’s footprint calculator and Global Footprint Network’s footprint calculator and I realised that those two work flights I’d taken that year made up more than half of my carbon footprint!
I could easily have said, “Oh well, those flights were offset by work so it’s fine.”
But I think carbon offsetting is basically used as a coverup for us folk in rich countries to quell the guilt we feel about the devastation we’re causing. I think we shouldn’t be using our privilege to have fun at the expense of the health, livelihoods, homes and lives of others.
We should be using our privilege to create system change for those without such privilege, and those in future generations that don’t even have a life yet, let alone a voice. Carbon offsetting doesn’t change the system, and it takes years to actually offset, while the devastation is already happening now.
We should be using our privilege to create system change for those without such privilege.
I could (like other colleagues) have said, “It’s for work, so it doesn’t count. I have to do it.“ I couldn’t imagine trying to explain that to my children in 20 years’ time. My conscience wouldn’t allow me to make such excuses. This was my opportunity to accept reality, and be the change.
As a Christian, I aim to love my neighbour as myself. This means in all my decisions, I can’t choose an option that puts others in harm’s way, when an option not to, or an option that is less harmful, is available. If I am choosing to do something that is directly contributing to the climate emergency, like flying, and therefore making life very difficult for millions of people around the world, when I could simply not fly, I am not being a true disciple.
A couple of months later I told my team at work that I wouldn’t be flying again.
This wasn’t much of a surprise as I’d given a talk to about half the company the month before about the global climate catastrophe.
I said, “Oh, heads up, for reasons obvious from the talk I gave the other day, I’m no longer flying. I realise that’ll cause problems and I realise that my contract says that I need to be willing to travel but I’m no longer going to fly. I’m happy for it to be taken as high as it needs to be, but I’m more comfortable quitting than I am flying. I’m sorry for the annoyance and the problems that’ll cause, but I don't think we should, so I’m not.“
I told the boss, "I’m more comfortable quitting my job than I am flying."
It was a bit awkward. I had rehearsed what I wanted to say in my head countless times. The reasons for not flying are obvious from a justice and planetary perspective, but because flying is so cheap, it’s the obvious choice for a business. Quick fixes like carbon offsets or swapping to recycled printer paper are the things businesses look for, decisions someone else can make that doesn’t get in the way of making money, but can make the company look like it’s doing something good.
A few months later my team’s facilitator was organising the team flight out to Romania to visit the contractors that we were working with. I realised that I would be expected to go, even though I’d said I wouldn’t be flying any more.
When I reiterated this, my team facilitator said, “I thought that was only outside of work. I thought you might be able to make an exception as, you know, it’s work.” I politely refused, saying that whether I fly for work or for pleasure, it’s still other people’s lives at stake. I don’t like disappointing people, and although the conversation made me nervous before and rattled through my head for a while after, I was confident I’d done the right thing.
Although the conversation made me nervous before and rattled through my head for a while after, I was confident I’d done the right thing.
In the end, my company has been very accommodating. After a couple of awkward conversations with my team facilitator, I was not pressured again into flying for any reason. About eight months on my CEO actually changed company policy, not to allow groups larger than five to fly out anywhere, giving the climate emergency as a reason. I was astounded! I got to talk with him and support his decision.
The more people that take this stance, wherever they possibly can, the more our culture and infrastructure will have to adapt. We've already seen this start to happen with the rise of vegan options and vegan restaurants. It’s basic economics: if we want to change the supply we need to change the demand.
It’s basic economics: if we want to change the supply we need to change the demand.
Since Covid, the company has been forced to invest in infrastructure to make working from home and international conference calls work well. Now we only need more people saying a hard no to flying. That will start the social change needed for us to stay with the green new normal.
In general, people tend to avoid talking about the climate. They will often quickly change the topic about anything that involves personal change.
