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By Ellen Duggan

This summer, I did what one of my friends refers to as ‘the Irish student moving to Berlin for clubbing thing,’ except that I have not moved to Berlin (too expensive) and my closest experience to clubbing has been a small, sweaty room that seemed more like my local teen disco than Berghain (albeit one with shots for €1). I’m living in a small city and working in an Irish pub and I can state without a doubt that it’s one of the best and most enriching decisions I’ve ever made. Though, honestly, I say that about every decision I’ve made about travel. Since starting university, I’ve spent as much as I can afford on leaving the country: visiting my best friend in London, reading week in Paris, a weekend trip to Tallinn. Cheap Ryanair flights and surviving on bread and cheese upon arrival have meant I haven’t even suffered too much financially. My older relatives have watched me do this with a combination of pride and nostalgia, occasionally slipping me some cash and telling me they also spent all their money on travel when they were young, and that it educates you like nothing else does. And I wholeheartedly agree – from art museums in ornate palaces constructed for Catherine the Great, to witnessing a fraternity ‘midnight scream’ ritual here in Germany, I am convinced travelling has made me a better, more aware and more tolerant person, and that through trips abroad I have attained something I couldn’t on my family’s annual holiday to Cork – which I hugely resented when I was young while watching my friends return from Lanzarote with colourful fridge magnets.

And yet, I’m not certain I would do it again.

My flights to and from Germany cost me €45 altogether, and according to this calculator, released 474 kilograms of CO2 emissions. That doesn’t take into account the weight of all my luggage, which makes the plane heavier and so raises emissions (and I’m staying for three months, so I brought a LOT), nor my transport to and from the airport. That’s slightly more than the annual carbon emissions of someone living in Sudan, one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. I know using personal carbon footprint as a measure of environmental impact serves to shift the responsibility for emissions from corporations to individuals, helping ignore the systemic nature of the climate crisis, but I can’t help but feeI it’s hypocritical of me to espouse the importance of living sustainably when my lifestyle doesn’t reflect this. The privilege of being able to set money aside from my part-time job for cheap flights while climate change forces millions into poverty is beginning to leave a bad taste in my mouth. And that’s without even going into the environmental impacts of tourism development…

I don’t want to stop travelling. But honestly, without flying, how can I? Ireland is an island, giving us limited options for international travel without aviation. Furthermore, I’m a student, and have limited finances. I can hardly afford Greta’s zero-carbon yacht. A recent report from Greenpeace shows that train routes (by far the least carbon intensive option for travel) in Europe are on average twice as expensive as flights, with some being up to 30 times the price for the exact same route. There’s also the question of drawing your journey out to allow for a slower, more sustainable means of transport. The cost of travel isn’t just the price of a flight or a bed in a hostel- it’s the weeks of work you are taking off, and the money you are not earning in the meantime. There is no way I could stay here for three months unless I was working the entire time. Flying is horribly convenient – both the quickest and cheapest way to get around the globe. It is the fastest growing source of transport-related greenhouse gas emissions in the EU and flights under 1500 KG (which often have corresponding rail routes) make up 25% of EU aviation emissions. In the meantime, the aviation industry is doing its best to convince us that flying can become and will become sustainable. Ryanair, on their website, describe themselves as ‘the greenest and cleanest airline in Europe’ and pledge net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, despite being Europe’s most polluting airline in 2022. And while the idea of carbon offsetting is nice, in reality it’s just another market based approach to sustainability, lending to the idea that we can shift responsibility around and buy our way out of the climate crisis, rather than actually reducing emissions.

I can offer some practical tips for travelling sustainably. I can recommend you travel less and for longer, that not only is it better for the planet but a more rewarding experience. I can advise avoiding tourist destinations, visiting during the off-season, checking the carbon footprint of wherever you’re staying. I can tell you that it matters what you consume when you arrive, and that you should support small businesses and eat locally produced food. To pack only what you need so your bags aren’t too heavy, bring a reusable water bottle and cutlery, a tote bag and a lunch box (which I’ve found here, street food vendors will often accept if you ask them to place food in it). You should think of getting to and from the airport or port or station, and if you can try to cycle where you’re staying. But that’s another article.

I’m not committing to never flying again, which I don’t think is realistic or feasible. What I can tell you is that I won’t be making anymore weekend trips, and that next time I travel it will be by ferry. I’ll be sticking to the principle that just because flying is cheap, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a greater cost.

And perhaps I’ll be rejoining my family on our annual trip to Cork.