I have flown on a lot of airplanes in my life. They have taken me to spectacular places, let me keep in touch with far-flung friends and family, and enabled some of the most fulfilling experiences I've ever had.
On all the trips I took, I never thought about the effect that the emissions from my flying were having on our planet—which is ridiculous.
I've been worried about climate change for decades. I don't have children. I grow much of my own produce. I am eating more of a plant-based diet. I wash and redeploy every plastic bag I use. But it wasn't until I started following the activism of Peter Kalmus and George Monbiot that I learned that one of the most helpful lifestyle changes I could make was not to fly.
My goal right now is to reserve the rest of my lifetime plane travel only for visits to see my father and to get to a few specific places I have always wanted to see. I will figure out how to use trains, boats, buses, and cars to get everywhere else.
I think some people might see not flying at will as a sacrifice. But if it is, it's one that you can only make if you are privileged enough to have the option of flying in the first place. And it's a relatively small step I can take to try to mitigate what I've already done.