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.

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.

I became a father for the first time in 2021. I have no idea what the world will look like in 5, 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.