“Vi håller oss på jorden” - the name of the Swedish Flight Free campaign. Photo: Anna Wisotsky
“Hi, my name is Jenny - a (mostly non-flying) Swede currently living in the US. Four years ago I realized that I simply could choose to never, ever fly, again. Ahh what a relief! My wish for a flight-free life was motivated 100% by strong environmental concerns, and 100% by a strong fear of flying. And I know that such a thing as 200% doesn’t exist, but what I meant was that if the decision hadn’t been based on the former, it would still have been based on the latter, and vice versa. I hadn’t flown on a personal trip for several years, but still had done it occasionally (and reluctantly) for work, something I now had decided to stop doing, too.
I was very happy and content with this new flight-free realization - it really felt like an epiphany. But my new decision was quickly put to the test when only about two weeks later I met a person whom I fell deeply in love with. A person who, as it turned out, lived an ocean and a continent away.
To keep a long distance-relationship alive proved to be a challenge, so after one year I packed a few of my belongings and went to Los Angeles for an extended visit - and two years later, I’m still here! During that first year, I had taken up flying again - in the name of love, so to say - but last year, when it was time to start planning for a longer trip home to Sweden, I felt strongly that I wanted to go back to my non-flying life, even with this whole new set of circumstances to take into account.
“I started looking up the possibilities for traveling between my two cities, Los Angeles and Stockholm, by train and ship, and learned that the trip would take two weeks or more, instead of the “usual” eleven hours by plane. ”
I started looking up the possibilities for traveling between my two cities, Los Angeles and Stockholm, by train and ship, and learned that the trip would take two weeks or more, instead of the “usual” eleven hours by plane. Traveling by land and ocean from LA to Stockhom is a very privileged trip to make, money- and time wise - where the environmental gains (compared to flying) are actually unclear. Crossing the ocean is namely a real challenge to do in a green manner - unless going on a sailboat like Greta, of course. This certainly had me thinking both once and twice and tenfold times about the sanity of traveling like this in the first place - what the point would even be, if the earth wouldn’t be any happier for it than if I had just...taken a flight?
In the end I decided to go with the land-ocean-option, in all its imperfection. The possibilities for developing greener ocean crossings in the future are greater than they are for the aviation industry, I figured. And thus my trip represented a vote, a chance to talk more about the future I want…a chance to just start somewhere. So, after realizing that joining a sailboat-crew or embarking on a cargo ship wasn’t going to work for me this time, I went with the cruise ship option, which right now is the only “commute” over the Atlantic available at a commercial scale.
“While traveling I took every chance I got to talk with people I met about the environmental concerns of traveling. This felt like a crucial piece - to use the trip for something (at least a little) bigger than just my own transport. ”
While traveling I took every chance I got to talk with people I met about the environmental concerns of traveling. This felt like a crucial piece - to use the trip for something (at least a little) bigger than just my own transport. Many people I met had never thought about neither the aviation industry’s nor the cruise ship’s environmental impacts, and thanks to traveling slowly (relatively speaking, at least), we all had plenty of time at our hands to dive deeper into these issues, together.
The story of the actual trip itself is one for another time and place - but in summary, it was fantastic. Traveling between my two places like this, without the “jump” up in the sky in between, actually made them feel closer to each other, a feeling I have enjoyed ever since coming back to LA in the fall. It’s as if I had created a thread between them that wasn’t there before. Pretty magical, actually.
With a new summer now approaching I am in the process of deciding what to do this year. I really want to see my family and friends back in Stockholm, but is it reasonable to make such a trip again so soon? Hard decisions to make - even when they feel very clear “in principle”. In a flight-free world maybe my partner and I never would have met, and then I wouldn’t have this dilemma now - but I am of course happy that we did, that we met that is :) So we continue to do the best we can in the situation we are in.
The last couple of months I’ve been involved in Flight Free USA, helping to spread the message of the importance - and the delights - of a flight free life to people here in the US. Back in Sweden I was getting used to these ideas starting to be quite common, or mainstream even, and coming to the US had me feeling a tad bit lonely in it all. I am very grateful for having found this group of people to collaborate with now - the first Americans I’ve met to share these thoughts and convictions with. “Just” stopping to fly will not in itself solve any of the challenges the world is facing right now - but seen as a part of a much bigger change, it is a choice that is a powerful one to make. Hopefully, soon, there will be many more people joining the train we’re on!”
Feeling inspired to join the #FlightFree community? Sign the pledge today:
A longer version of Jenny’s process towards the decision to not fly (again):
www.pancakesonthethird.com/2019/02/27/why-i-stopped-flying-and-why-im-quitting-again/
Outside Union Station LA, ready to embark on a two week trip back to Stockholm in June 2019. Photo: Anna Wisotsky