one that most people will consider
infeasible and a tad alienating. If
you have family or friends far away,
if you trade internationally, if you
are an artist, doctor, aid worker,
scientist, performer or academic,
or simply if you count travel as
one of your greatest passions,
going flight-free may well seem
prohibitively detrimental and
potentially damaging to your life
and the lives of others. And at this
stage, we really can’t risk losing
people to defeatism – that poison to
progress. But if a majority of people
make moderate improvements to
their carbon footprint, this will
have a much greater net impact
than a marginal group adopting
an extreme position.
Most of us would be willing
to admit we’ve become too casual
about air travel. And this “why
not?” attitude to flying is exactly
what was intended by the low-cost
carriers that landed on the scene
about 15 years ago. For nearly
two decades, budget airlines have
tirelessly marketed the idea that
the only consequence of taking
frequent short-haul flights is fewer
dollars in the bank. Now, humanity
is once again in the unenviable
position of having to relinquish its
current, comfortable mindset and
adjust to a new, less convenient one,
even though it’s not a new mindset
at all; it’s the one we had 20 years
ago, which we now realise was
right, after all. Just as we’ve hauled
organic-farming methods back from
the recesses of history, so, too, we’re
having to reinstate our healthy
respect for air travel. Because
sometimes, progress means going
back to the way things used to be.
What I’m resolving to do, in
2020, is to simply treat air travel
with the respect it deserves. To
regard every flight as a privilege,
to travel more mindfully, to ensure
that every single flight I take really
counts. This means I still get to
visit my family in California and
Ireland, and I still get one or two
life-changing flights to explore
new and exotic locations, perhaps
Bolivia or Vanuatu. It also meansembracing rail travel in Europe
and America, packing a good book
to see me through the 16-hour
train journey from London
to Austria this month. On my
52-hour Amtrak trip between Los
Angeles and New Orleans in April,
perhaps I’ll write a damn book.
Looking at the year ahead, my aim
is to get my flight count down to
less than five round-trips annually.
I know that, to some people, this
will already seem excessive, but the
amount we fly varies enormously
from person to person, based on
their individual circumstances:
their professional field, the
whereabouts of their loved
ones and, to a lesser extent,
their hobbies and passions.
People travel differently
for various reasons, and it’s
up to everyone to feel that pang
of flight shame and make the
adjustment that seems sane and
sustainable to them – and find
a way of flying that feels good
to them. Because sustainability,
well, it needs to be sustainable. ●GOURMET TRAVELLER 135The art of travel