14 Swedish Members of Parliament taking the #FlightFree2021 pledge. Photo: Vi håller oss på jorden
Maja Rosén from the Swedish Flight Free campaign Vi håller oss på jorden sent an email to all the 349 members of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdagen), asking them to pledge Flight Free for the climate’s sake.
So far 14 of the politicians have replied that they will stay on the ground - seven from the green party Miljöpartiet (MP), and seven from the left party Vänsterpartiet (V). Of these, one person (Lorentz Tovatt, MP) has pledged to be “Flight Free for as long as the climate needs”, four have pledged to be Flight Free for all of 2021 and the rest have pledged to be free from leisure air travel for 2021 (most of these also adding that they would do their best to minimize work travel by plane as much as possible).
14 Members of Parliament, making a point about not flying…very inspiring!
And now it’s up to us here in the US to join the party! With the option of going “Flight Free for leisure” even busy politicians are able to join - and we hope that they will be thrilled about this opportunity to show that they really are here to walk the walk and not only talk the talk (in the case they are actually even talking the talk that is, we of course know that that isn’t always the case…but let’s start by holding the ones that do accountable to their words).
We will get back on this topic more during the spring - for now we hope that you will feel inspired to contact your representatives with this suggestion - and let us know how it goes! If you need help in formulating your email or letter, reach out to us and we’ll work on it together!
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For a refresher on why we want to stay on the ground in the first place - click here to read some Frequently Asked Questions, and suggested answers. This resource can be used as inspiration for letter-writing as well as in conversations with family and friends - the more often we do this, the easier and more natural it becomes, we promise!
For more news and stories from overseas, welcome over to Flight Free World.
And a news article on “walking the walk” on a bigger scale - it all ties together, in the end:
www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/u-s-rejoins-paris-climate-agreement-now-comes-daunting-part