Although Greta Thunberg may be the most famous Swedish climate activist, she’s certainly not the only one. While celebrities such as Diplo indulge in private jet rides for their fried chicken, Thunberg has made a solid statement about where she stands on the issue. Eschewing commercial flights, she will hop on boats across the Atlantic in order to pursue her goals. And other Swedes have started to take note — and emulate Thunberg’s ways. As it turns out, there’s even a Swedish word for it — flygskam.
It’s worthwhile to note that Sweden seems to be full of noteworthy people willing to pitch in and make a difference. For two years now, popular Olympic athlete Björn Ferry has also passed up on flying in deference to Mother Earth. Thunberg’s own mother, Malena Ernman, is an opera singer who has essentially given up her international singing career in order to lighten the carbon load for future generations. Other Swedes have followed suit, and the polls reflect these trends. A whopping 20 percent of Swedish people have indicated that they cut or even eliminated the number of flights they normally take due to the environment. As flight shame continues to take hold and influence Western Europeans, as well as others in developed nations, what has been a continued uptick in the airline industry may eventually stagnate. Again, this is a sector that has experienced growth year after year.
A slowdown will be virtually unprecedented. But environmentalists, even those from wealthy nations, are starting to put their money where their mouth is. Traveling by cargo ship and train, they’ve added days to their itineraries simply to avoid putting more pollution into the atmosphere. With aircraft manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus consistently expecting growth, many would say that they have not been as focused on pleasing the environmentalists as they could be. Today’s travelers crave more fuel-efficient flights, and they’re not afraid to point out that they want their planes made of more sustainable materials. In a brave new world in which travelers are finally putting their money where their mouths are, we may even see more railroad expansion — something that hasn’t happened in over a century or so. But with the climate crisis swirling around the world, intense temperatures, melting glaciers and fires seem to have finally struck a nerve with people. The future of travel will be unlike anything we’ve seen before.
