I was selected by my school to attend a student leadership summit, with one of the topics focusing on environmental issues. However, it required me to fly to London, Ontario this spring. Though I think this a great opportunity for me to improve my skills as a climate leader, it is hypocritical to talk about “solving” the climate crisis while producing multiple tonnes of carbon dioxide at the same time. Flying expels huge quantities of greenhouse gases during a short time frame. To put this in perspective this flight there and back collectively will generate around the same amount of carbon dioxide as the amount of the average citizen of India in one year. This greatly concerned me and made me question whether I should go.
I realize that there is a bigger picture and one could argue that going to the summit you will learn many skills. You could use these skills to make an impact and therefore reduce the emissions of corporations, individuals or groups, and supposedly this would exceedingly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions caused by that one flight. But, one could counter that by saying that it is unfair to expect people will change if you don’t change. For example, if you ask people to reduce their meat intake but you eat steak each meal nobody will listen to you, and this same reasoning applies to transport. So, I find just because I have good intentions that I do not deserve a free pass. Finally, before I go further I want to acknowledge that it is really hard for many people to eliminate flying. But it is important to reduce it as much as possible to some extent.
So now I am faced with a problem because I was chosen to go to a leadership conference and I have no sustainable way to get there. So one night I tried to find all the possible ways to reach my destination while producing low quantities of carbon dioxide. First, I researched the possibility of taking a train but quickly concluded that it would take a lot of time given that we do not have a well-developed passenger train network in Western Canada. Then I looked at buses but then realized there are no companies that go cross country and it would take too many transfers and it would be extremely uncomfortable for multiple days. Finally, I considered driving across the country. Then I looked at the possibilities of cars since we do not have a long-range electric car. After a while, I found a local car dealership in Vancouver that solely rents electric cars.
We looked at all the possibilities of cars but the only car that had enough of the range was the Tesla Model 3 long range. It would be the perfect car for this trip. But when we checked the price of the car and added the extra KM it was about $4500. This was way out of my budget.
I realized I needed to find a solution. So I decided to make it a bigger issue than this one flight. I decided this trip could be a chance to take a strong stance to raise awareness about this issue. Similar to Greta Thunberg sailing across the Atlantic Ocean.
To raise the money for this trip we would ask for donations and sponsors and we will try to connect with media outlets to see if they are interested to spread my message to the world.
I know so far this might seem crazy but I think that is beneficial because it will get the attention of people and that is my goal.
Since we have started, we have raised $2 000 so far, and we have already a couple of informal offers by news organizations to publish my story. This is way better then I could have hoped for and I hope my journey will be a success.
In the next few months, I will try to get additional media attention about me and my journey. Also, I will approach corporations about the possibility of sponsorship.
Finally, I want to thank my parents for supporting me during this entire project and since I was born. If it weren’t for them all of this would have never happened.
Thanks for reading my blog!!!
Also, don’t feel obligated but I do have a GoFundMe so if you want to contribute this would be an excellent way to do so.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/reducing-carbon-emissions-by-responsible-travel
The Green Choice 