The end of flying?

I’ve done a lot of traveling. Often for work, but also for pleasure. For education. For curiosity. Here’s the current list:

Alaska. Texas. Arizona. California. Utah. Idaho. Massachusetts. New York. New Jersey. Illinois. Ohio. Nebraska. Oregon. And of course my own state of Washington on the west coast. Outside our borders, I’ve seen Canada. Mexico. Japan. England. The Netherlands. Germany. France. Spain. Portugal. Italy. Greece. Turkey. Morocco. And Scotland.

Plus stopovers where I never left the airport: Reykjavik. Berne. Shannon.

Did I say the word “airport”? Are we talking flights on commercial aircraft?

Yes.

So here’s the problem: Airplanes dump an astonishing amount of pollution into the air. As Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat described it in his June 7, 2019 article on Rick Steves, an intercontinental flight can produce up to 3.5 *tons* of carbon dioxide per person.

Per. Person.

So it makes sense Sweden has come up with a word to address the situation: flygskam, or flight shame. The situation has reached the point where travel guru Rick Steves has announced he’ll seek to offset plane pollution from his tours with a large donation to nonprofits helping people affected by—you guessed it—our climate crisis [and yes, I believe it’s real]. I expect others will follow suit.

Will it be enough? Or do we stop flying? I hope not, if only because I think it’s so important for different cultures to get to know each other. Familiarity breeds friendship. Ignorance breeds fear. And heaven knows, we have enough of that going around.

Maybe blimps will make a comeback. Either that, or we’ll build electric-powered aircraft. I may travel less in the future. But I doubt I’ll stop. How else would I have run across After Death Sauce if I hadn’t stumbled upon it in my travels?