With her powerful, fearless speeches urging politicians to act on climate change, Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg has become an icon and an inspiration to millions of people throughout the world. But it’s not just her words that are motivating people to become environmentally conscious. It’s also her lifestyle choices.
As you might have noticed in the news, Thunberg has been traveling all over Europe to take give speeches and take part in climate action protests. Instead of getting from place to place using planes, however, Thunberg is purposefully using a greener transportation option: trains. The “flygskam”, or “flight-shame” movement has been brewing in Sweden for the past couple years, and statistics show it’s working: bookings at Sweden’s main railway company have increased eightfold this January compared with two years ago.
With train travel generating 15g of CO2 per kilometer compared with about 100g for flying, environmentally conscious Swedes such as Greta have stopped flying, or at least are reducing the number of flights they take. The World Wildlife Foundation released a survey indicating that nearly one in five people in Sweden had opted to travel by train rather than plane for environmental reasons. Will you hop aboard a train the next time you have to travel?
