As you have already read, I am going to Turkey by train to attend my sister's wedding. I didn't want to go by plane because of the climate.
Last year I had to deal with a kind of climate depression in the summer. I don't know what to call it but if I had to describe it, I would say I experienced a huge shock. Of course, the climate has been talked about for some time and the seriousness of this problem has been known since the 60s/70s, but in the summer of 2021 the shocking IPCC report was released and the media was full of news about the forest fires.
Now it was also the case that I saw a work of art about the history of oil. I then went on to read more about it and that was actually what caused the shock. The world is warming, but our energy resources are also running out. And we are lagging far behind when it comes to alternative sources, cleaner energy and (!) behavioral change.
Because that is what interests me as a psychologist who has graduated: our behaviour. If we want to ensure that the earth only warms by 1.5 degrees (which is already quite disastrous) then we really have to drastically change our behavior.
That can frighten you, it can sound annoying, but if we want our planet to remain livable for the next generations and if we don't want many people on this earth to suffer from the consequences of climate change, we will have to.
Our lifestyle has changed drastically over the past few decades. There are things that we actually find very normal or perhaps feel as if we are entitled to them. Take, for example, traveling or going on vacation.
When I was in high school I heard all my peers talking about going to Asia to find yourself. I always thought it was bullshit. You find yourself by traveling within. That's actually the most adventurous journey you can take, try it :) Anyway, ok traveling is adventurous, it's exciting and of course you learn about other cultures. But being able to travel as a twenty-year-old is also an enormous luxury. Something we rich people can do but a lot of people on this earth can only dream about it. Every year people in Europe go on holiday in the summer. And even outside the summer months. Because we have so much money that we can even go on vacation two, or three or four times per year. But is that normal?
What's also true is that we are taught by modern world that everything needs to go fast. We want to lose as little time as possible because it gives us more time to enjoy life, for example by going on holidays. When my grandmother traveled by boat to Indonesia because my grandfather had to work there, it took 2 to 3 months to get there. Since airplanes where invented, we could fly in a few hours to every place in Europe and in less than a day to destinations far away. We forgot that you can also go by train to Berlin or Milan. Someone told me recently that going one time with a plane, is the same as driving every day with the car to your work. So imagine if you take a flight four, five or six times per year.
Graph from: zomerzondervliegen.be.
In this image you can see how much co2 you can save minimum (yellow) and maximum (blue). It also shows what is the most sustainable way of traveling. Of course this depends also on your destination.
In short, not so long ago, traveling was something that only a few people on Earth could afford and that took a lot of time. Before the boat, car, airplane and train, we just went by bicycle and before that maybe by horse and before that probably on foot.
I don't think that going by train to Turkey will save the climate. Global warming is caused by more than just travel. But interesting to know is that if people would stop taking the car to their work on a daily basis, this will save so much C02! The way we move around in our own living environment is maybe more important than the longer journeys we make. Or at least, no less important.
This is an image taken from Zaailingen.com.
By the way, I am flying back from Turkey to Amsterdam, so I am still not doing it completely sustainable. Also I don't want to get into discussions with people telling that yes well, but there will be
But for me that's also not what I am interested in. I also do not want to end up in discussions with people about new innovations such as electric cars (of which the electricity is often still generated by coal) or how they are doing more sustainably in other areas of their lifestyle (I have no children, I have no car, so I can fly or I'm vegan). I am not trying to say that you personally have to stop flying (although it would make me happy if you would stop taking short flights less than 5-6 hours).
With this trip I want to experience how it is if you travel for 67 hours by train as compared to the 3-4 hours travel by airplane. And mainly I want to reflect on the conflict between personal needs and the collective responsibility of caring for a livable planet. I want to dive deeper into my own feelings but preferably also that of other people. So if you are interested to reflect with me on this topic, check out the main page of this website.