Denise Stegmann on November 4th 2019

​Attempt of a pilot's wife to justify air travel during a warming climate

Our aviation family

As the wife of a pilot I am not just trying to justify traveling but I’m actually wrapping my mind around my family’s existence since most of our money comes from the airline industry. Please know that our family cares about the well being of the planet, we try to make good choices on a regular basis. Just this morning my husband explained to our 5 year old that riding the bike to school doesn’t produce any of the bad smoke that is bad for our planet, the bad smoke being the exhaust he sees in the cold air during car drop off at his school. I get very concerned about global warming and what is going to happen to our beautiful planet if we don’t stop heating its atmosphere.

​So how do I justify going on flights with my family? How do I justify our family’s income? How do I justify having started this travel blog in 2019, the year of Greta Thunberg?  

a problem with no obvious solution

This article is about a problem with no obvious solution. Aviation contributes to 4.9% of human caused climate change (UN Environment Program and World Meteorological Organization, 2018). And air travel is not going away, in fact it is on the rise. Airlines are adding more flights as more passengers worldwide embark on journeys for different reasons. Flying makes almost the whole world accessible, and there is little alternative if you want to go to far off places within a short period of time. 

what happens when you buy an airline ticket?

In 2019 it is safe to say that when you buy an airline ticket you are going to contribute to man made CO2 emission in a significant way, and you are telling the airlines that it is still worth it to send more planes into the sky. The problem is also that the world’s privileged are going on flights while the emission of planes most likely does more harm in places that are economically more insecure, and are more vulnerable to natural disasters. I’m not going to let the argument count that the planes would fly anyway, if you buy a ticket or not. No, it’s a completely demand based economy. It would be way too expensive for airlines to let planes take off without the income from ticket sales. 

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what other impacts does air travel have on the world?

But let’s take a look at the whole picture, surely travel must have other kinds of impacts on the world, other than greenhouse gas emission. First there is the obvious economic impact that tourism can have on otherwise small communities that would not be able to generate much income without visitors. And then there are the social implications that travel hopefully has on humanity. As humans we are most fulfilled when we bond, when we communicate, that’s how humanity’s biggest achievements have been accomplished, no meaningful idea has ever been created in isolation. 

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is the world Wide Web enough to keep us connected?

When you read the newspaper it seems like the world is full of conflicts and wars. But peace research has shown that over the last centuries the world has actually become a more peaceful place. Nations have found ways to keep peace through trade deals, compromising and agreeing on arrangements that help countries and its people get along on borders.  Now the world has become even smaller, wars and conflicts escalate between countries that don’t even share a border. The threat of cyber war is ever present. So what’s humanity got to do? Is everyone going to stay in their own small community to avoid producing CO2 by using a car or getting on an airplane? There is no way we are going to create a peaceful world that way. Are we going to start connecting to other cultures via webcam? We all use more senses than just our eyes and ears. It also takes significantly more time to really understand another culture.We all need to understand each other culturally for the world to work.

examples of attitude change through cultural experiences 

My upbringing was shaped by the German education system and I am a child of the European Union and all its efforts to keep European countries at peace. My schooling was full of multicultural experiences, and I believe that these have had an impact on me and my classmates' attitudes and value systems. So in my very simplistic world view I feel like the whole world could benefit from such an approach, an approach where young people are exposed to other cultures encouraging tolerance for mixed views and other backgrounds. The most relevant study that would prove my claim that traveling and engaging with people from other cultures contributes to world peace in some kind of way was done by Bachner and Zeutschel (1994) when they assessed long term effects of youth exchange programs in American and German students. They were able to document “an overall attitude of internationalism that would seem to have positive implications for enhancing world peace and cooperation”.  So this kind of exposure to diversity increases tolerance for mixed views, and other cultures. ​Erasmus (European Union student exchange program) is one example from Europe for facilitating cultural experiences and learning. Even though the majority of students who choose to participate in this study abroad program for the fun experience and to increase their future job prospects, a study by the European Commission in 2010 showed that participation in the program also strengthens tolerance of other cultures. 
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​And yes, peace research's findings support my view, positive relations with other countries contribute to peace (Positive Peace Report 2018, Institute for Economics and Peace IEP)

In our globalized world today air travel will have to be part of most cultural exchange programs, and cooperations between countries. In our fast paced world we cannot choose to not meet person to person. We need these cultural experiences to understand and keep in touch in a peaceful way. Humanity as a whole will have to solve the climate crisis.    

My disappointing conclusion

Sadly there is no way to take on the burden of climate change as an individual. With all my daily actions I try to make good decisions for our climate. But I also fly quite frequently, by myself, as a couple and as a family. The most important plane trip we take once or twice a year is the flight across the Atlantic to visit my family. This connection is so important for my children, and also for my parents. This plane trip is never going to disappear from our lives. I should probably feel worse about our escapes to warmer parts of the worlds during our brutal Minnesota winters. The goal of these trips is primarily to watch my children enjoy playing on a beach, and to soak up some warmth myself with the added bonus of doing so while enjoying a different culture and supporting that part of the world. These journeys feel self serving and luxurious. There is no reasonable way for me to justify this kind of travel except for showing my children a different part of the world and making them aware that we are all humans who share a complex and connected world. You can guess it, dear reader, I am not planning on giving up on air travel, and I cling on to the hope that governments and industries will find ways to cut carbon emissions, that scientists will find ways to make a warming world livable.

I wish I could live long enough to know what our descendants are going to think of such a piece of writing. Are they going to laugh about my worries in 2019 or are they going to wrap their minds around my then obvious naivete?

there isn't much you can do to make flying less harmful for the planet but keep the following in mind:

  • Be thoughtful about your flying
  • Make the trip meaningful, don’t just get drunk in a different part of the world
  • Stay longer, try to be a temporary local
  • Take direct flights since planes burn the most fuel during take off
  • Fly Coach, more people on the plane means less fuel burned per gallon of 
  • Consider driving instead a short distance flight
  • Consider buying carbon offsets, and research the program before you spend the money
So I just wrote this article and then I come across an article in my favorite news source, the New York Times, and it tells me that the clothing and footwear industry is responsible for 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions www.nytimes.com/2019/11/03/opinion/climate-change-clothing-policy.html . I guess times are going to have to change, if you are a traveler or not.

What other people have written

​www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-bad-is-air-travel-for-the-environment-51166834/

https://phys.org/news/2018-08-effect-global-aviation-environment.html

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