Flight Free 2020 provided the impetus to quit the day job that made me fly, and the relief was immediate on multiple fronts. A Flight Free 2021 vow is easy; it’s merely an extension of a deliberate choice to seek an authentic zero-carbon life. A simple life is not an impoverished life. Never again will I have to endure airports with their chronically frustrated TSA officials, postponed or canceled flights, chronically depressed and frenzied people, and the soul-sucking awareness that I am an intractable part of the problem. As an old white privileged male, a colonialist by birth, staying out of the air and on the ground offers a real opportunity for personal reform, a chance to learn to listen, and the hope of serving future generations for the common good.

And it turns out that staying on the ground is just the beginning. By not flying, there is no risk of being Covid infected in a plane. I’m one less person contributing to the destruction of the Earth at 35,000 feet, and, better yet, by not flying, I had the time and money to install solar panels, which power my entire home with net-zero carbon electricity. 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.

Via the simple act of a Flight Free pledge, we’ve finally been able to start living a life informed by the Green New Deal. You have created a path to hope that starts small and then snowballs in the best of ways. The new economy, and the millions of new green jobs, are coming soon.