Sustainable Wanderlust: Reconciling Flight-Shame

Do you want to live sustainably and yet travel the world? Here’s a different way to think about your individual action.

This is a new format I am experimenting with. My day-to-day work is very theoretical. I love abstract thinking and going as meta as possible. Yet, I’m drawn to these abstract ideas because of their impact on my everyday life. This new format is my attempt to bridge that gap, to bring those theories closer to the reality of our daily experiences.

Often, when I share my thoughts, especially in talks, the expectation is for solutions. When I am invited as an “expert”, people expect that I have answers. Well, mostly I don’t. And I've come to see this insistence on solutions, what some call "solutionism," as part of the problem. Through this new format, I'm aiming to shift the focus from seeking answers to exploring the diverse possibilities that questions themselves can unveil.

If questions were beings, maybe they aren't seeking to marry a single, definitive answer but rather thrive in a multitude of connections. They might prefer polyamorous relationships with various perspectives, inviting us to explore, wonder, and embrace the uncertainties that come with it.

Let me know if this format resonates with you.

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Dear Jes,

I consider myself an environmentalist. I have a job in sustainability in which I manage a team of eight in a small sustainability consulting agency - we advice small SME's as well as multinationals on their sustainability strategy, I go to demonstrations, I volunteer in an urban garden, I also buy exclusively organic food and sustainable clothing, I try to shop as little as possible, I don't have a car. I try to do sustainability by the books. What I have always loved doing was traveling. I have traveled half the world in my twenties and couldn't get enough of it. There is nothing more interesting to me than immersing myself in different cultures, I love the tropical sun and seeing all the beauty in the world. It seems so inherently right to travel. Men exist to travel and to explore the world. I am convinced that the only reason God rested on day 7 was that airplanes weren't yet invented. 

For the past three years though, I have refrained from flying. I still travel. Some. I made a pact with myself that I will use only trains, buses, bikes and sailboats as modes of transport. And I have gotten far. I traveled to China with the Siberian railway and to Guinea Bissau by bus. Both of these travels took a really long time. Time I don't have at the moment and that's ok. If I am not willing to take the time, it can't be that important. Or so I argue to myself. Lately though, I really just want to step on a plane and visit some far away places. All around me, people - who also consider themselves environmentalists - seem to not be bothered to fly around the world. Admittedly, some compensate. But we all know that compensation is first and foremost a marketing scam. 

Some of my friends fly to Bali for two weeks, to South America for a retreat - back and forth. I despise them for that. And at the same time I am so jealous. In my good moments, I wish them a nice time. In my darker moments, I want to imprison them. I also want to keep flying around the world. I can't wrap my around it. How can they not care, except for the occasional comment of something in the game field of "ups, I fly a lot." How can their actions be so entirely mismatched with what they say they believe in? I don't want to say that I am a saint. My apartment is too big, I buy too many clothes and I have tons of technical devices. But at least I am trying. And I do make sacrifices. Which others don't seem to do. 

I don't want to become a bitter environmentalist who judges every one based on their carbon footprint. But maybe, I already do. I wonder if I should just start flying again. To get it out of my system. Irrespective of the impact. What difference does it make anyways if I am the only one on this planet who doesn't fly (I know I am not and that more than 80% of the people on this planet have never stepped food on an airplane). I am about to book my flight to Guatemala. Should I?

Sincerely, the Good Environmentalist

Dear GE, 

Boy, have I been there. So many times. 

Clearly, you deeply care about sustainability and have made conscientious efforts in your life. Your struggle with the desire to travel contrasts with your commitment to environmental stewardship. You find it perplexing when others who claim similar values seem less conflicted about their actions. Sometimes, it's tough when you're trying your best to align your actions with your values, and it seems like others don't share the same internal struggle. But guess what? Your journey toward sustainability isn't a competition. It's about finding your balance between what you want and what you believe is right.

It's also very human to feel torn between personal desires and ethical convictions. Often, our choices reflect complex, intertwined values and yearnings. Your sense of conflict emerges from this internal dialogue between your passion for exploring the world and your deep commitment to sustainability.

The Hypocrisy Myth

Although you might feel like a hypocrite if you fly to Guatemala, and although you might think that all your flying friends are hypocrites, too. I believe that you are not. And they are not. If you were, it would be so much easier to change for all of us.

Instead, it demonstrates how co-constituted you are with your environment. There is no escape to purity. Living a truly sustainable life is impossible in the Anthropocene. You are always already entangled - to the good and the ugly. There is no simple or linear way out. You cannot not participate.

At the same time, that doesn't mean that simple and linear solutions are not part of the equation. So, flying to Guatemala is not ideal, AND that's not the whole story.

Enlightenment ideals of hyper-individualism shaped the notion that each person resides within their skin-bound body. Our culture often promotes this idea that you can make right decisions. Choose to eat organic fruits and veggies only, and you'll be healthy. Don't ever fly to Guatemala, and you will save the planet. Sustainability often has individualism written all over it.

And as a hyper-individual, you get the idea that the decisions you make are solely your own, detached from the world around you, suggesting that your choices exist in some sort of vacuum, unaffected by external factors or the collective impact of our society. Moreover, it perpetuates the notion that you can attain this ideal way of acting, a perfect way to act or consume that's separate from the complexities of reality, an untainted, flawless way of making choices, a pristine path that leads to righteous actions.

You Are Entangled 

However, I am sure you have noticed that the truth is far more entangled. Your decisions are stitched into our society, social norms, economic structures, and cultural values. They're not made in isolation but are a reflection of the world we live in and the values we've internalized.

You are co-constituted, which means that your identity, experiences, and even your existence are not formed in isolation. Instead, they are shaped and defined in relation to others and the environment around you. We co-create and co-shape each other's realities.

The idea of isolated action paradoxically limits your scope for collective action, shutting off possibilities. When you see your entanglement, you also see that your actions, even small ones, affect the world, even if you don't see it directly. These are missed opportunities for addressing the world's challenges that you care about so much.

So, instead of wanting things to be simple and isolated, you can think more about how things are connected. Perhaps you can embrace your complex entanglements rather than avoiding them. Perhaps you can accept that we live in compromised times, acknowledging the inadvertent implications of your existence - your actions, even those of survival, impact ecosystems near and far.

The End of Individual Action

To counteract the idea of individual action, there's a need for political solidarity with various beings and ecosystems. Aspirational solidarity, rooted in collective visions of non-existent worlds that might guide your actions, nurturing environments where all beings flourish.

Saying that individual action is impossible doesn't mean you shouldn't pursue it - or fly to Guatemala that is. Yet, as your individual boundaries disperse, individual action ceases to be that - it's not an isolated act in the world. It's a co-creation embedded in the world. And with that, you can make subjective decisions based on what you think is right and wrong.

The focal point thus lies in conceiving and practicing your relation to a world teeming with otherness.

🐒 Something fascinating about other beings

Tarantulas keep frogs as pets. The dotted humming frog benefits from this relationship, as the tarantula provides the frog protection from predators, a stable food source due to the frog’s ability to feed off the remnants of the spider’s prey, and shelter to protect from climate changes. On the other hand, the frog's foraging protects the tarantula's eggs from ants.

📚Things I enjoyed reading

• Maybe we can extend human-centred design to non-humans.

  Tom Greenwood
  asks if sustainability is just about humans.

• Jia Tolentino about what to do with our complex climate emotions

• I love this from Derek Sivers to walk with people for a couple days to explore ideas

• Entanglements: Working with the Invisible Dimension of Systems Transformation in the Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change

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