Sharing our stories and inspiring each other is a crucial part of changing the norm and instigate change on a bigger scale. Below are a few of the Flight Free 2021-stories we have received so far - each and everyone an important piece of the beautiful puzzle that is collective change!
Do you have a story to share with us? Let us know at info@flightfreeusa.org
And make sure to follow us on instagram and twitter for regular updates on the campaign!
In 2015, I studied abroad in Copenhagen during my junior year of college. Later that year I calculated my emissions and learned that my flight to Denmark and back had a bigger negative impact than everything else I had done that year combined. I haven’t flown since.
While switching from plane to rail meant a longer journey, and more planning, Thagard says she's enjoyed seeing the US by train.
“It makes you start focusing on your local places -- what can we do to keep our local places beautiful -- instead of having to fly somewhere else, to see someone else's beautiful local place.”
"I've been flying back and forth to see [my family] for decades now, and so deciding to go flight free meant a real change of life for me, but I love it."
Michael Winkler served 12 years as a member of the Arcata City Council and as Mayor, and was an outspoken opponent of subsidies and other support for the expansion of our local airport.
I stopped flying in 2018 but this year was the first time I had heard about the pledge. It is also the first time that I realized that the climate crisis will now dramatically alter my 50 year old children's lives, not just my grandchildren's lives.
I have managed to live car-free since 2002 in the relatively rural state of Vermont. And before the pandemic, I traveled a lot - locally by walking, biking and transit and longer distances by bus and Amtrak. The last time I flew was in 2014 and have not had the need to since.
We all must do all we can to reduce our individual and collective carbon footprint. We must also advocate at the state and federal level for more environmentally-friendly infrastructure, in particular high-speed rail.
Climate action that truly reduces carbon emissions is more important every year. We need to act like we're in an escalating emergency--because we are.
I will never fly again, or travel far, both because it is the only sane response to what is happening to our planet, but also because I have daughters, nieces and nephews lives to care for. And I’ll stay Placed, here at home, in the only way that intimate knowledge is available so that I may meet what is happening not as witness, though that too, but as a deeply imbedded participant.
I pledge to be flightfree for as long as the climate needs for all the reasons so many others have said:
It's not fair to fly.
I am able to avoid flying.
I want to feel proud when I talk to my future grandkids (g-d willing!) about what I did and did not do, once *we knew* about climate change and the impact flying has on our shared environment.
We see that our actions are causing the natural world to collapse. The least thing we can do is not do something that makes things worse.
The travel norm of a few affects the living conditions for us all. And the individual choice to not fly will spread waves of consciousness and calls to action for politicians and companies alike, if only enough of us join in. That is my belief, and that is why I am part of the Flight Free 2021-campaign.
We need to take care of our earth, people! It's like If someone is very sick but you don't do anything. Earth Is very sick and we need to take action!
The question isn’t “how much can I get away with?” it is “how low can I go?”.
I have come to realize that due to my family situation I won't be able to avoid ever flying again, but I will continue to be very mindful about the environmental impact. Instead of flying in 2021, I hope to do several hiking trips with my dogs in California that I had to cancel in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
I know a lot of people feel that they love the Caribbean and its beautiful islands. So let’s all love the Caribbean enough to avoid contributing to its disappearance.
I became a father in 2021. I have no idea what the world will look like 10, 20, or 50 years from now. And when my son grows up and asks me about the unfolding climate emergency, I want to look him in the eye and tell him that I did everything I could.
For a livable planet, I can miss the places that were still on my travel bucket list. I’d rather know those places exist – and that they and their people are safe, healthy, and protected – than ever see a single one of them. Of course, the reality is more nuanced, but quitting flying is still a simple, tangible, impactful way to participate in that hopeful future. Flight Free 2021, here we come.
I stopped flying 12 years ago, and now my much-improved “bucket list” includes local hiking and kayaking and working with activist groups to clean up the air in my region.
By being a part of the Flight Free 2021 campaign, we can have a different message: when individuals join together and shun air travel, industry and the government will need to help deliver solutions. This includes more efficient and affordable ground transport and the eventual electrification of air travel.
Unlike airline mileage plans, Flight Free is the gift that keeps on giving. I’ve learned how to stay home, discovered the joy of locally grown, plant-based food, and I finally get to know my own backyard.
In early adulthood, I thought it the most normal thing to jump on a plane to Scotland to visit friends that I’d made in Saudi, for instance. Now I understand that I have had more than my fair share of all that carbon emissions craziness
I drove home, staring out the window in awe at the landscapes I would have only looked upon impassively if I’d flown. I felt like I was seeing the country for the first time, even though I’d flown over it so many times. And maybe that’s one of the biggest benefits of not flying--you realize just how much you are a part of the earth when you exist on its level, not hovering above.
I am pledging to be flight free in 2021 because I believe that burning hydrocarbons in our outer atmosphere is contributing to the destruction of this very delicate film of air that protects us from the sun's more harmful rays.
I've chosen to not fly during the climate emergency - I'm not waiting for climate policy to tell me this or tax me for it. There are frequent debates about the importance of individual climate action vs. system change. For me they are two sides of the same coin. I wouldn’t be able to show up for one without the other. Many of us are already embracing the cultural shift that needs to happen to transition off of fossil fuels and we have good stories to share in this Flight Free gallery. Welcome!
We’ve got to do more. To stop climate change we need national and state policies and international treaties to keep carbon in the ground and transition as rapidly as possible to safe, carbon-free renewable energy. Personal transformation, community transformation, institutional transformation, and political transformation go hand in hand. None can succeed without the rest.