為何有些人不再坐飛機

By Ellie Broughton

Customs and Border anxiety， the boredom of endless lines， and jet lag：1 Flying sucks. Add guilt over carbon emissions and it becomes harder to justify why we still do it.2

The aviation industry3 is currently responsible for about 2 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. This figure is set to grow as air travel becomes increasingly popular. Airlines transported 4.3 billion passengers worldwide last year， an increase of 38 million over the year before. For every round-trip flight from New York City to London， which releases a ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere， 30 square feet of Arctic ice is lost.4

Efforts to reduce the effects of aviation are moving at a very slow pace. Emissions-cutting innovation is still many years， maybe decades， from implementation.5 Electric and solar-powered airliners are reportedly in development at Wright Electric and Airbus among others， but battery technology still lags behind jet fuel.6

全球氣候變化問題日益嚴峻，采取切實有效的措施來降低碳排放量已經刻不容緩。由于航空業是耗費燃油的大戶，許多環保人士決定通過抵制搭乘飛機來為環保身體力行。但這可能并不是一個輕松的決定，畢竟作為最省時的遠距離交通方式，坐飛機早已成為許多人生活中的必需環節。當環保需求與個人生活發生沖突，人們如何作出正確的選擇？這樣的做法又能否真正影響整體的氣候局勢呢？

The startling effects of aviation are why a number of people are choosing to quit， or hugely restrict， flying.7 While “staying grounded，” as activists call it， might not make the biggest difference to your carbon footprint―a study last summer found that cutting meat， eggs and dairy was the best thing people can do for the planet―it can still make a huge difference.8

One of the more noteworthy9 non-flyers in the news lately is climate activist Greta Thunberg. The 16-year-old took a 32-hour train from her home in Sweden to Switzerland to deliver her speech at Davos10. She hopes to join a bigger movement for changes to the aviation industry―and wants her behavior to make a statement.

“Ive decided to stop flying because I want to practice as I preach11， to create opinion and to lower my own emissions，” she said.“One person who stops flying will not make a difference. But if a large number of people do then it will. It sends a message that we are in a crisis and have to change our behaviour.”

Peter Kalmus， an author and climate scientist living in Altadena， California， stopped flying in 2012 after clocking12 50，000 miles in 2010. He set up the website No Fly Climate Sci for others who are doing similar things. His wife and their two kids， 10 and 12， agreed to swap plane journeys for13 car journeys.

He says he feels frustrated by arguments that pit personal choices against14 wider movements for change.

“The whole ‘individual versus collective thing is a false dichotomy，”15 he said. “We have to stop having this fruitless16 debate because action at any level leads to more action at every level. All these levels of action―community， individual， national， international―theyre all feeding back on17 each other.”

Zoe Hatch， who lives in Maidenhead in the U.K.， stopped flying in 2015 after reading up on climate change and learning about climate feedback loops18. Her husband and their two children， 11 and 15， joined her in a family decision to switch to slow travel.

Hatch hasnt found it inconvenient or expensive， she says. She uses apps and sales alerts to find affordable train tickets. Being connected to continental Europe by the Eurostar train makes it relatively easy to travel abroad without needing to fly.19

“I wanted to introduce my kids to just being able to pick up a bag and travel，” she said. “When youre flying its like youre beamed into a different location， whereas when you go on a train journey， you can feel the transition.”20

Sophie Voillot， a translator from Montreal， last flew in 2014. She made two trips―one of which was to France to organize her fathers funeral.

Before her fathers death， Voillot flew there every year. Now that hes gone， she says， her main reason to travel has disappeared. “I still have friends and a few distant relatives over there，” she said. “Of course I miss them， but we still have the Internet to stay in touch and feel connected.”

Before she quit， shed had “bucket list” trips to the West Coast of the U.S.， India and Nepal.21 Now a “splurge” trip for her is a long and expensive train trip to Alberta for the summer.22 She acknowledges that having traveled extensively before， she doesnt now feel like her decision to quit flying means giving up anything.

Steve Melia， Ph.D.， is an expert in sustainable23 transportation at University of the West of England in Bristol，U.K.， who stopped flying in 2005. He agrees that individual change， in itself， wont prevent climate crisis. “The sort of rapid change we need to avert the collapse of the ecosystem through climate change―thats not going to come about by people voluntarily choosing to change their behavior，”24 he added.

A survey compiled by one of his students last year found that， of 153 people whod cut back on flights， 76 percent said it felt like“doing the right thing” and 69 percent said“information about environmental impacts”changed their minds.

Melia adds that its important that people who feel the need to quit dont talk themselves out of it. “If we are going to achieve the sort of rapid change that is necessary， some people have to initiate25 that change， and if all of the people who might be initiating change are themselves flying and convincing themselves that they cant live without flying， then wheres the initiative for change going to come from？” he asked.

Kalmus knows quitting flying is not going to work for everybody. But， he says， those worried about climate change would probably benefit from acting on how they feel. “At this point， we just need to explore every avenue26，” he said. “Thats going to mean different things for different people because we all have different skills and interests. I urge people to get creative， and that may or may not include flying less.”

Thunberg feels its urgent to act now. “I know that many scientists are working with new techniques to reduce the emissions of the aviation industry， biofuel27 and creating electric airplanes，” she said. “But they will not be ready anywhere near the scale required within the timeframe of the Paris Agreement.28 Therefore I stay on the ground.”

1. Customs： 海關；border： 邊境；jet lag： 飛行時差反應。

2. carbon emission： 碳排放量；justify： 證明……正確（或正當），為……作出解釋。

3. aviation industry： 航空工業。

4. 每一次紐約和倫敦之間的往返旅程都會有1噸的二氧化碳排放至大氣層里，這會導致30平方英尺的北極冰川融化。round trip：往返旅程；Arctic： 北極的。

5. innovation： 創新，革新；implementation：實施，執行。

6. solar-powered： 太陽能的；airliner： 大型客機，班機；Wright Electric： 賴特電氣公司，是一家電動飛機制造創業公司，2016年在美國成立；Airbus： 空中客車公司，是歐洲一家飛機制造、研發公司，1970年12月于法國成立；lag behind： 落后。

7. startling： 驚人的；restrict： 限制，約束。

8. 行動主義者宣稱的“留在地面”也許并不能給你的個人碳排放量帶來顯著的影響——畢竟去年夏天的一項研究發現，減少肉類、蛋類和乳制品的攝入才是人們能為地球做的最有效的貢獻——然而，不再搭乘飛機仍然能帶來巨大的改變。activist： 激進分子，行動主義分子；carbon footprint： 碳足跡，碳排放量。

9. noteworthy： 顯著的，值得關注的。

10. Davos： 達沃斯，瑞士東部的一個城鎮，以冬季運動和每年在那里召開的達沃斯論壇而聞名。

11. preach： 宣講，說教。

12. clock： 達到（時間、距離、數量記錄）。

13. swap… for： 與……交換。

14. pit…against： 使……相競爭，使……對峙。

15. versus： 與……相對；dichotomy：二分法，一分為二。

16. fruitless： 無成效的，無結果的。

17. feed back on： 回饋。

18. loop： 環，圈。

19. continental Europe： 歐洲大陸；Eurostar： 歐洲之星，是一條始于英國倫敦，通往法國巴黎、里爾、阿維尼翁，比利時布魯塞爾，荷蘭阿姆斯特丹、鹿特丹等地的高速鐵路線。

20. beam into：（光線，激光光束等）射入；transition： 過渡，轉變。

21. bucket list： 遺愿清單，人生目標清單；Nepal： 尼泊爾。

22. splurge： 揮霍，亂花錢；Alberta： 艾伯塔，加拿大的一個省。

23. sustainable： 可持續發展的。

24. avert： 避免，防止；collapse： 崩潰，瓦解；ecosystem： 生態系統；voluntarily： 自愿地，無償地。

25. initiate： 開始，發起。

26. avenue： 途徑，方法。

27. biofuel： 生物燃料。

28. timeframe： 時間范圍，時間表；Paris Agreement：《巴黎協定》，是由聯合國196個締約方在2015年聯合國氣候變化大會中通過的氣候協議。這一協定取代了《京都議定書》，確定了2020年后的全球氣候治理相關安排。