Helena A S

I don’t want to publish this picture without sharing some thoughts on sustainability and the privilege of traveling.

Views like this one on the English coast make flying fascinating every time. However, the Ryanair sign gives a bitter indication of bad working conditions, low wages and, as any other flight, pollution. We choose flying so often because it is so damn advantageous on the short term: You save time as well as money. It’s too convenient to refuse. Thus, considering taking less flights, I feared lots of deprivation first – then I discovered another point of view.

I’ve often thought that in most cases, the more ecological choices are also the socially more tenable and healthier ones: A mostly vegan, organic nutrition, taking the bike or not eating palm oil – the list goes on – are not only ecologically sustainable but also better for those at the bottom end of the production chain and way healthier for our bodies. Flying, at first sight, doesn’t seem unhealthy, except for radiation or jetlag perhaps. Nevertheless, when you start thinking about it, there’s more to it.

I’ve mentioned the issue of time: We take the plane because we’re going to places for just a week or two. We say it isn’t worth to spend four days in the car or on the train when our stay is not long enough. So let’s ignore the time limitations of school and work for a moment and imagine we’d go for longer stays. The longer journey would be worth it, also because slow traveling is very enjoyable*. American natives wouldn’t even take the train because they’d believe their soul could not follow. I can relate to that. When physically arriving by plane, it takes me some time to arrive mentally. It’s an unhealthy, unnatural feeling. In addition, longer stays are more intense. I often wish that I could stay longer in the places I go by plane. A week of travel feels like just passing by, saying hello and leaving again. Thus, less flying provides an increased depth of travel. And this is my point.

For me, there are two kinds of traveling the world: You can choose width or depth.

Width means visiting as many places as possible and tagging them on a world map on your wall. Width means never going to one place for more than once because you’ve already seen it. Width means the pressure to take pictures of all the sights because you think sights are what travel is about. Width means staying in resorts, surrounded by other tourists. Width means running through the world and not getting in touch with people. Width means just looking at things.

I prefer depth. Yes, it will take you to fewer places, but it will take you closer. Depth, for me, means longer stays or visiting places more than once. Depth means counting encounters, not countries. Depth means visiting friends. It’s a wonderful feeling to go to another country and being received as if you arrived at home; it’s a wonderful feeling to speak another country’s language and understand its ways of thinking. Depth means understanding other peoples’ cultures** and attitudes instead of only recognizing strange things as negative. Depth means a contribution to peace. For me, visiting our family’s friend in Reims, France, is a gift – not only for his hospitality but all the more remembering the fact that his father and my great-grandfather fought each other in Verdun. Depth means getting to know a country beyond negative aspects (e.g. violence, poverty) and helps you understand their origins which we are often part of. Depth offers recognizing differences as an enrichment, it helps realizing that we are a huge family and have humanity in common.

And this is important!

Many don’t realize that traveling is a huge privilege. We are used to only having to show our passport to go anywhere; the German passport is the most powerful in the world. We have to be conscious of the fact that others have to risk their lives on the Mediterranean to go to where we come from. We can pass while others are stuck behind fences. We visit foreign countries like we go to a zoo: Taking a look at others while they are prevented from going with us. There’s a huge inequality in this world, and we, the Western Europeans, together with people from few other nations, are the privileged ones. My father once told me that instead of feeling guilty for privilege, one should accept responsibility. For me, this means that I don’t want to travel just to enjoy other countries’ beaches and hotels. It’s our privilege to visit other places, so let’s use it to share it with everyone. Let’s make the world grow together by creating an exchange that only we, the privileged, can initiate. By traveling we can’t immediately abolish the unequal structure of this world, but we can overcome it in our mind***. Don’t let us see the nationality, colour of skin, religion or any other material difference in the person opposite but only the human being. Let’s travel with attitude.

Okay, so what does this have to do with flying?

We worry about flying because we want our travel to be sustainable. I believe that by taking less flights, combined with taking up attitude, our travel will be more sustainable not only ecologically but also mentally. If we take our time not just to have a look at other countries but to become part of them, this insight will impact us. It will move us to change something so that maybe one day, we’ll be the generation to actually overcome pollution as well as unjust structures to create a more peaceful world.

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Wanderers above the sea of autumn leaves

Exploring Alicante

Cabo Huertas, Alicante, Spain

Shooting in the Barrio, Alicante, August 2014