The global fight against climate change has been taking off recently, thanks in large part to Greta Thunberg.

She’s come a long way since that initial school strike, and is now mobilising people all over the world in an effort to get governments to acknowledge and commit to fighting global warming.

Please take a minute to enjoy these Greta Thunberg office posters before we continue.

Much like the ‘flygskam’ movement (which Thunberg helped to popularise), the posters are designed to shame you into not being a dick.

‘Flygskam’ is Swedish for ‘flight shame’ and describes ‘the feeling of guilt when taking flights’.

Remember that time everyone got really angry because Kim and Kanye chartered an over-the-top private jet? Or what about that time that Meghan and Harry took a private plane to visit Elton John and the internet lost it? That’s how it starts.

Mashable with more:

‘Flygskam’ is […] growing into a pretty formidable strategy. Thunberg wielded it when, instead of taking a flight from the UK to New York, she sailed across the Atlantic aboard a zero-emissions racing yacht this August. Her two-week expedition shed light on the immense impact commercial aviation has on climate change.

Last year, international air travel was responsible for 2,4% of global fossil carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. That might not seem like a big deal, but if we treated the entire industry as if it were a country, it would be the sixth-largest fossil CO2 emitter in the world.

…according to a WWF survey, 23 percent of the Swedish population says it has altered its flying behaviour since ‘flygskam’ entered the country’s vocabulary.

And although it’s hard to directly associate that shift with the term itself, a new survey by Swiss bank UBS suggests that flying shame is indeed leading people to fly less, not just in Sweden but in the UK and the U.S. as well.

In the UK, climate activists are going so far as to glue themselves to the top of planes to drive the ‘flygskam’ home.

So what happens if you need to fly, but can’t handle the shame?

In simple terms, if you take more than five flights per year, cut it down. And even if you rarely board a plane, there are still things you can do to fly more efficiently. Or as Rutherford calls it, “fly like a NERD,” an acronym that stands for new, economy, regular, and direct.

In essence, it means we should be trying to take direct flights in economy class, executed by regular-sized, newer airplanes.

Here’s how to fly like a NERD:

While this isn’t going to change the world, it is better than doing nothing. In South Africa, we have very little choice when it comes to cross country travel.

It might not be too long before flight search engines are able to display flights with carbon labelling, which would make it easier for people to make informed choices when it comes to flying in the most fuel-efficient way possible.

Until then, we’ll just have to feel that shame or fly like a NERD.

[source:mashable]