Since January 1st 2025, I’ve stopped flying, and had already “almost” stopped flying for about 10 years. Why? I love the earth, people, all kinds of critters, and our precious interconnection! Airline flights generate greenhouse gas emissions, noise pollution, habitat disruption, water contamination from de-icing fluids, and intensified atmospheric warming due to high-altitude emissions. We may not “feel” that we hate our beautiful earth and all its vulnerable inhabitants… but frequent air travelers are actually behaving as if they do. It’s hard to witness this, so the least I can do is go public, share the information that many of us are doing what the world’s scientists recommend – just stop flying – and hope to inspire others to follow suit. It’s a movement. The real-world impact of aviation is a dismal worsening of the climate emergency. And people of color, who are likelier to live in close proximity to airports, suffer unequal health harms due to ultrafine particle pollution from aircraft emissions. I’ve been a full-on climate activist since I plunged into the fracking fight in 2009. I’ve helped protect the Delaware River watershed, and helped lead struggles to stop several fossil fuel infrastructure projects, including the Pilgrim Oil Pipelines in NY/NJ. I’ve seen the ugly power of the oil and gas, chemical, and plastic industries up close and personal for these 17 years. So why would I want to increase their power? It took me a while to fully understand the toxic impact of every single flight – even the 2017 flight I took to bring small-scale solar panels to Puerto Rico to help regenerative farmers recover from the climate-intensified devastation of Hurricane Maria. I’ve slowly stopped rationalizing. I’ve come to love train rides. My dad is 101, and lives across the country from me, so I would make an exception for family medical emergency. But to visit and take care of him on a non-emergency basis, Amtrak New York to New Mexico has become a thrill for me, full of reading, writing poems, new friends, incredible scenery, a stop-off for Chicago’s jazz and blues along the way. And because I’m not taking any flying vacations to anywhere, ever, I can afford that. I enjoy nature’s gifts where I live; I love the Earth, stand for justice, and I save money. What’s not to love about not flying?
Micah B, New York
There is no way to travel by air in a way that is not ecologically detrimental within our current or future technological capabilities. We as consumers need to discontinue financially supporting airline corporations whenever possible, and instead need to create a stronger consumer demand for improved ground-based green transportation infrastructure. ...
