What Is Flying Shame? Is It a Movement With Legs?

When Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg skipped flying in favor of a two-week Atlantic crossing to reach the United Nations Climate Summit in New York in September 2019, the nascent flight-shaming movement really took off. Protest groups such as Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion are fueling the campaign by highlighting aviation’s role in global warming. The phenomenon could lead to lower passenger numbers, higher taxes on flights, and changes in jet and fuel technology.

The movement is named for the Swedish term “flygskam,” or flight shame, the emotion it’s meant to provoke. It started in 2017 when five Swedish celebrities including Thunberg’s mother, opera singer Malena Ernman, wrote a newspaper piece pledging to give up air travel for the sake of the environment. Debate grew more lively the next year with another newspaper column and a surge in followers of the Facebook group Tagsemester, meaning train vacation, promoting rail as an alternative to flying. At the same time, following Thunberg’s example, students started skipping school all over the world to join what are known as climate strikes, demanding greater action to combat climate change.