In his former life, Olympic gold medalist Bj枚rn Ferry was a frequent flier.听He traveled 180 days of the year between training and competitions, armed with the cross-country skis and rifle characteristic of the听, a sport that orignated in Scandanavia and combines nordic skiing with target shooting. In all, Ferry estimates that he traveled around 25,000 miles per year by plane and another 25,000 by car or minibus. 鈥淏ack then I emitted 16 tons of CO2 per year,鈥� he says with dismay. 鈥淸The] average in Sweden is eight. That doesn鈥檛 look so good.鈥�

After breaking down his carbon footprint with an online carbon calculator, and realizing just how much air travel factored in, Ferry and his wife, world-champion arm wrestler听, decided to change their ways. In 2015, they committed to stop flying and built a greenhouse to听grow most of their own food. 鈥淧otatoes, berries鈥攁nd we have a lot of elk, so we stopped buying meat in the store,鈥� Ferry explains. 鈥淎ltogether听we鈥檝e cut our emissions by 70 to 75 percent.鈥�

Ferry and Andersson have been听鈥攐r blamed, depending on who you ask鈥攚ith provoking the feeling of flygskam, which translates to 鈥渇light shame.鈥澨齌he two went public with their commitment not to fly in a they coauthored in a Swedish newspaper in 2017 with eight other people, including youth-climate activist Greta Thunberg鈥檚 mother, the opera singer Malena Ernman. Thunberg herself stopped flying in 2015.听At approximately听 of CO2 emitted per passenger mile traveled, flying outpollutes all other modes of transit, compared with nine听ounces of CO2 emitted per passenger mile by car听and 0.79 ounces by train. Furthermore, plane emissions are released听 into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, where they alter the composition of atmospheric gasses that contribute to climate change. According to the independent organization Climate Central, every round-trip transatlantic flight emits enough CO2 to melt听 of Arctic sea ice.

Ferry says that while the term flygskam听is associated with his name, he committed to stop flying before it was coined last year. The term has since been employed colloquially by Twitter users in various countries who are听looking for help with train itineraries, coming clean about upcoming plans to fly, or calling out high-profile frequent fliers. Ferry says he thinks this social pressure has led Swedes to be more low profile in their travels. 鈥淧eople used to go on vacation and come home, post pictures, and say, 鈥業鈥檝e been to Egypt with my family, and I鈥檝e seen these big stone pyres, and it was so great,鈥欌�� he explains. 鈥淣ow they go, but they don鈥檛 even say that they鈥檝e been abroad.鈥�

Traveling is a status symbol that people don鈥檛 know how to separate themselves from, says Maja Ros茅n of Sweden,听who has been working on a more targeted campaign to get people to abstain from air travel, called听. Ros茅n made a quiet commitment to stop flying a decade ago, after facing what she refers to as a long, difficult 鈥渃limate depression,鈥� once she realized how much damage human-induced climate change has already made. She and her friend, graphic designer Lotta Hammar,听are aiming to get 100,000 Swedes to commit to being flight-free in 2020. Last year they convinced听14,500. Now their campaign has听 to Belgium, Denmark, France, and the United Kingdom.

We Stay on the Ground isn鈥檛 pushing people to stop traveling. 鈥淏ut I think it鈥檚 important to change this norm that you have to go far to have a good life,鈥� says Ros茅n. Since committing to not flying, she听and her family have begun visiting听one of Sweden鈥檚 northernmost islands, Nordkoster,听each summer. 鈥淵ou take a train and then a ferry. And that island听is so beautiful,鈥� she says. Going there only emits 22 to 26 pounds of CO2 per person, as compared to approximately 2,200 pounds if they were to travel to Spain, or 6,600 pounds if they visited Thailand. If Nordkoster was situated somewhere more 鈥渆xotic,鈥� like the South Pacific, Ros茅n says she thinks it would be a more attractive travel destination for Swedes, who take an average of 1.2 international trips per year, putting its citizens听fourth on the list of the world鈥檚 (Americans take an average of .2 trips a year).听鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit ironic that more Swedes have been to Thailand than have been to that island,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e have paradise just around the corner, but it鈥檚 not something to talk about…. so听many people just take it for granted.鈥�

In addition to flight shaming听on听, there鈥檚 also a rising culture of making flight-free travel both retro and contemporary. Signs posted by climate-focused accounts like @theclimatecards (鈥溾��), and random users鈥� hometown portraits听paired with听听to look more locally for adventure,听challenge people to flaunt the decision to travel by rail or bus. Calls to action and messages like #smarterliving and #lessismore accompany the听 of Instagram posts, with hashtags like #flyless, #flyfree, and #nofly.

Although this degree of pressure around not flying has seen more social traction in Europe, the climate conscious in the U.S. have been flying less for just about as long as their European counterparts. Over the past decade, thought leaders like NASA climate scientist听 have given up flying altogether, and others, like climate scientists Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University and Kim Cobb of Georgia Tech, have drastically reduced the number of flights they take each year.

That鈥檚 more difficult in some parts of the U.S. 鈥淐alifornia is currently building a high-speed line, but I鈥檓 stuck in the Southeast with really old rail infrastructure and crumbling Amtrak service,鈥� says Cobb. The U.S. doesn鈥檛 currently have the market to support continuous, affordable train travel in North America, she says, but it is essential to demonstrate the demand. In 2017, passengers logged听 miles on air carriers, in comparison with听听miles on commuter or light-rail means. 鈥淲e need to look across the ocean on that,鈥� Cobb says. In Sweden, to continue with the leader in the trend,听a cultural shift has resulted in one out of six Swedes opting to take trains over planes. As The Guardian听, train-centric travel companies like Centralens Resebutik announced an eightfold increase in sales in January 2019, as compared to two years ago.

In the U.S., websites dedicated to public commitments to cut down on air travel, like Kalmus鈥檚听,听have targeted climate scientists across the world. But they鈥檝e also attracted fly-less commitments from academics and average citizens, like Ken Garber, a 61-year-old science writer and rock climber based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Garber says traveling has actually gotten more exciting since he鈥檚 ditched air travel. Last summer听he took a train from Michigan to Sandpoint, Idaho. After hopping off, he hitchhiked into British Columbia and made it most of the way to its听Selkirk Mountains. 鈥淚 never expected, at my age, to find myself pitching my tent by the side of the road when I couldn鈥檛 get a ride, or hopping on a train at 3 A.M. and trying to find my way to a place where I could sleep,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut I鈥檝e met a tremendous number of local people who are fantastically friendly that I wouldn鈥檛 have met if I had been traveling in the conventional way.鈥�

Despite the name of the movement, those committed to no flying insist they don鈥檛 actually mean to shame people. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 write every day, 鈥楴o one should fly!鈥� I just do it,鈥� Ferry concurs. Part of the puzzle is to get others to believe there is a sustainable lifestyle that is also desirable. 鈥淚f the answer is no, then we have no chance to curb emissions,鈥� he says.

鈥淲e still travel, we still enjoy life,鈥� Ferry says. It just takes more planning and patience. A recent work trip from his hometown of Storuman, Sweden鈥攋ust south of the polar circle鈥攖o Antholz, Italy, took him about 50 hours by train. The trip was long, but it allowed him time for reading, listening, and thinking, time he never found as a frequent flier. And he says that his commitment is not a sacrifice. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 dream about Mount Everest or anything,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 just put on some glasses,听and I go to my neighborhood. I study the birds, I study the forest. There鈥檚 a lot to see.鈥�

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In early March, on the morning of her ninth-consecutive Friday striking from school, 12-year-old Denver seventh-grader听Haven Coleman wakes up to look at her calendar and inventory her page-long list of the day鈥檚 tasks. 鈥淪o I did like three e-mails, checked on my texts, and checked on Slack鈥攖hat鈥檚 where the state leads are,鈥� she explains. After touching base with a publicist and press adviser, Coleman and her mom head听out听to the Colorado state House, where she hunkers down for her three-hour climate strike on a bitterly windy day. Then it鈥檚 home again for another series of calls, e-mail, and tasks. Over 1,700 miles away, in New York City, 13-year-old seventh-grader听Alexandria Villase帽or鈥檚 day takes a similar shape. She and her mom NBC news into their apartment for a series of interviews. Later听she sets up camp on her regular bench outside the United Nations headquarters. Then she goes home to wade through e-mail听and fight climate-change-denying trolls on Twitter.

Coleman and Villase帽or are two of three coleaders听directing听the in the United States, which is working to shut down schools across the country on March 15 to demand that world leaders act on preventing climate change. They听say that some of their teachers are very supportive of their strikes, and some are听not.听But the good thing about skipping school is that, as middle schoolers working 40 hours a week leading a social movement, it鈥檚 kind of inconvenient to risk detention if you need to check your phone.听

Villase帽or,听Coleman, and a handful of other American students听have ushered in 2019 by ditching class听and going on strike every Friday, regardless of rain, sleet, or snow. The girls join tens of thousands of other young people worldwide听who have been inspired by the outspoken 16-year-old Swedish climate activist . Thunberg has waged what has become known as her #FridaysForFuture strike outside the Swedish parliament building every Friday since September 2018, an effort听to push all world leaders to sign onto听the Paris climate agreement and limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius听above preindustrial temperatures. Other countries that have seen student-led protests for the past few months include听Uganda, Australia, Japan, Belgium, Germany, the UK, Spain, Canada, and Colombia.

鈥淥ne of my demands is zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030,鈥� Villase帽or says, in addition to solidarity with Thunberg鈥檚 . Although each girl鈥檚 strike began this winter as an individual act, the actions have morphed into a strike movement led by Coleman, Villase帽or, and 16-year-old Isra Hirsi of Minneapolis.

The #FridaysForFuture听movement, also known as #SchoolStrike4Climate, was slow to catch on in the United States. Kallan Benson, 14, of Maryland, and Zayne Cowie, nine, of New York, were the first to model strikes based on听Thunberg鈥檚, in early December. Villase帽or and Coleman got on board a few weeks later. However, it took more than two months before any of听Villase帽or鈥檚 fellow students听 her on East 42nd Street, and Coleman had to learn to shrug off weird looks and haters听who drove by and . 鈥淚t鈥檚 very frustrating,鈥� Coleman听says.听鈥淭hey don鈥檛 realize that鈥� this will be the biggest problem of our generation. No matter what. Because we will be recovering from all of these droughts, heat waves, fires, snowstorms, tsunamis, sea-level rise.鈥� And, she says, 鈥淲e鈥檒l have to work together.鈥�

Coleman and Villase帽or, who met over social media but haven鈥檛 yet met in person, still show听up every Friday at their respective protest locations, often alone, occasionally posting pictures of the two of them in spite of miles of separation. Many of their classmates 鈥渟till see themselves in the structure that we鈥檝e all been taught to live in,鈥� Villase帽or says. A few years back, at her old school, Coleman was bullied for trying to educate her classmates on climate breakdown.听Although Villase帽or, Coleman, and Hirsi all note a degree of apathy among fellow听students, as soon as they teamed up and went public across social media with plans for the March 15 strike, the trio immediately heard back from student leaders across the country who also wanted to lead state-level strikes. Such events are now听planned in more than听听and 92 countries,听with an of 100,000 nationally. Hirsi and Coleman estimate听that they鈥檙e spending between six and eight hours each听day answering e-mail听and fielding听calls with reporters and other students. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have any extracurricular activities,鈥� Coleman says. 鈥淐limate is my extracurricular.鈥�

Hirsi agrees. Though she has organized a handful of school walkouts and actions urging local lawmakers to pass a Green New Deal for Minnesota, this is the first time she鈥檚 organized anything at the national level. One of her main jobs is managing student leaders in each state鈥攎any of whom are older than she is. 鈥淚t feels really stressful, because I鈥檓 only a sophomore,鈥� Hirsi says. 鈥淢y family says that I鈥檓 taking on too much, that I should dial it down a few notches. I can鈥檛. I say I鈥檒l try, and then I schedule more calls and meetings.鈥�

But at the end of the day, they鈥檙e still adolescents. 鈥淪ometimes I just feel so screwed over by this,鈥� Coleman says. 鈥淟ike, sometimes I鈥檒l just sit and cry for like an hour about just how terrible this is.鈥澨�

The pressure of the work beats standing still. Villase帽or, who is originally from Davis, California, was an hour from the Paradise fire听when it听broke out this summer. 鈥淚t was very postapocalyptic,鈥� she recalls. Other young activists throughout the world, who have also been striking on Fridays since January, or earlier, echo this sentiment.听Lilly Platt听of Holland听is horrified that the ocean will soon be filled with ,听Holly Gillibrand of Scotland听is concerned about the lack of biodiversity on grouse moors,听and Vanessa Nakate of Uganda is troubled by seeing drought in January, which is traditionally the rainy season.

Choosing to self-educate and to act has not been all worry and sacrifice. After all, these young people have found each other and have become, as Coleman calls it, her ever growing international 鈥渃limate family.鈥� 鈥淲ith all the darkness we face now, you gotta find the joy,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 helped me be even more positive. And that鈥檚 helped me push through the bullying and the remarks on social media. I鈥檓 finding the little joys that we might not have in the future, and I鈥檓 cherishing them: A听plant in our room. All the animals that future generations won鈥檛 be able to see鈥� only in picture books.鈥�

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