Flight-Shaming', Why More Swedes Are Taking the Train

'Flight-Shaming': Why More Swedes Are Taking the Train

Flying may be the most convenient option for long-distance trips, but air travel is bad for the environment. For example, a flight from Paris to Barcelona produces about 238 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per passenger, while the same trip by train produces only 11 kilograms per passenger. For this reason, some travelers are choosing to avoid flying, instead taking the train when possible.

The environmental concern is so strong that, in Sweden, it has become popular to shame people into flying less – an act known as flygskam, or "flight-shaming."

On Instagram, for example, there's an account called "Clueless Influencers" in Swedish, that shames celebrities by re-posting their travel pictures with comments like, "It takes 9 tons of CO2 for your family to fly to Dubai." The account, created in December 2018, already has over 60,000 followers.

The term "flight-shaming" first appeared in a 2017 article by Swedish singer Staffan Lindberg, in which he and five of his friends promised to stop flying. One of the five was Malena Ernman, mother of 16-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who has also promised never to fly.

The flight-shaming movement has created another word: tagskryt, or "train-bragging," where people take pride in using the train and post pictures of their trips online. The Facebook group Tågsemester, which means "train holiday," has grown from about 3,000 members in 2017 to over 100,000 members today.

In fact, a March 2019 survey by the World Wildlife Foundation showed that nearly 20% of Swedes had chosen to travel by train, rather than plane, for environmental reasons. And in the first six months of 2019, the number of air passengers in Sweden was down 3.8% compared to 2018, though this has also likely been affected by a new flight tax introduced in 2018.