“Flight Shaming” and Carbon Offsets
A few weeks ago, I heard the term “Flight shaming.” Although new to me, it’s meaning was instantly obvious: the social and ethical stigma attached to flying, due to its impact on climate change.
Recently the CEO of Dutch airline KLM publicly recommended that for distances of a few hundred kilometers (miles) that people should avoid airplane flights in favor of rail or other ground mass transit. For an airline to recommend not flying, is quite a statement.
Immediately aviation sector investment analysts and companies throughout the industry were effectively cutting their long term growth targets in HALF. Some are already reducing their plans for future growth of plants and employees. A reduced demand for air travel would have a ripple effect beyond the airlines, to the aircraft manufacturers, jet engines, jet fuel, airports, etc.
What was remarkable was the suddenness. Time will tell if the reduced growth rate happens, but the fact that it quickly became the accepted outlook across the airline industry, without direct regulation or years of statistics was amazing.
At a recent conference of environmental managers from major corporations, there seemed to be agreement that this was very likely the result of a rapidly growing public awareness of the severity of the changing climate, a/k/a global warming, now showing up as extreme weather, wildfires and the thawing polar ice caps –– and rising sea level. That growing concern, even fear, across generations was embodied and symbolized by one name: Greta, the unlikely, unassuming, Swedish sixteen year old with Aspergers, who has become a phenom.
In sixteen months she went from obscurity to being a leader on the world stage, scolding the United Nations General Assembly, the US Congress, and the British Parliament. The story of her crossing the Atlantic from Sweden to address the United Nations, in a “green” sailboat, to avoid flying, came across loud and clear.
My Situation – Perhaps Guilt
This hit home for me. I fly a lot for my work, adding more than my share of greenhouse gases. The fact that I am teaching and expanding understanding and concern about climate change and rising sea level can help as a rationalization, but it does not avoid the issue.
Airline travel is estimated to contribute two or three percent to the problem of increasing “greenhouse gases” particularly carbon dioxide, associated with contributing to global warming. Thus it is a real contributor, but must be kept in perspective.
Contributions from producing electricity by coal, heating buildings, cars, trucks, and ships are far larger than aviation. Even if we stopped all air travel it would have little effect on stopping the warming. Yet, to the degree that flying is an indulgence or luxury, it should not be done frivolously. If nothing else, it serves as a high profile example of a problem and our willingness to change our ways for the greater good.
I know that I have become more sensitive to this, particularly over the last year. Increasingly I do presentations online, which is ever easier with the latest video conferencing software. For example, just last Friday, I taught two engineering classes at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, from my home in Florida. Not only was the interaction with the students very effective, it was a lot less wear and tear on me, compared to being there in person. On the other hand, this week I flew to Puerto Rico for a full week of meetings and presentations, that simply would not have been as effective, if I did them remotely.
So, I have a dilemma. I want to minimize my impact and set a good example, but the strong feedback from my meetings and audiences, is that my personal presentations make a big impact, that improves larger efforts for sustainability, resiliency, and adaptation.
Carbon Offset Credits
One partial remedy is something called carbon offset credits. The concept is that because our actions cause an addition to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that will trap heat, change weather, and raise sea level, then we should find ways to offset that CO2.
The most common technique is to sponsor the planting of trees. Trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere, liberating oxygen, and “locking up” the carbon in the form of plant matter, as the tree grows. When the tree dies and decomposes, the carbon returns to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane, so must be buried in the soil as “biochar” or replaced with another tree.
There are companies and non profit organizations that create the credits and sell them. A number of online websites allow you to easily buy the carbon offset credits. To avoid scams, look for companies that adhere to third party certification standards such as Gold Standard, Green-e, Climate Action Reserve, or ISO-14064 , which requires that they be audited. Here are two to consider:
- Carbon Fund www.carbonfund.org – a prominent firm in this space
- Greenland Trees www.greenlandtrees.org – my favorite at present, is a project led by colleague Dr. Jason Box, a glaciologist working on Greenland, to study the melting ice sheet and glaciers.
If you search online for carbon offsets you will find even more choices. The cost per flight can be quite reasonable, perhaps only a few dollars. I am now making the purchase of carbon offset credits, a practice both for my personal travel, business travel and for any expeditions I lead. While this will not significantly reduce the threat of climate change, it does take a moral stand and can raise awareness. Also it adds an actual cost to flying, an economic disincentive, what Economists call a “pricing signal.” That is valuable even in terms of creating market incentives — and may be a forerunner to actual “carbon pricing” a concept that is considered with increased interest even by some energy companies.
“We” all have a lot of work to do — to slow and reverse the increase in greenhouse gases, to be more resilient to the effects of a warming world, and to adapt to new baselines, like higher sea level. Solving those problems will require travel.
Please join me, both in keeping air travel to a minimum and paying the price in the form of carbon offsets when we do have to travel.