The Swedes have given several words to the English language, like ‘ombudsman,’ ‘smorgasborg,’ and ‘moped’. But recently the Scandanavian nation has added a new word to the lexicon: ‘flygskam’ (pronounced ‘Fleeg–skaam’) or ‘flight shame,’ referring to the feeling of guilt travellers have over the impact flying has on the environment.
Swedes are increasingly travelling by train. Image by Susanne Walstrom/Getty Images
The feeling has many Swedes opting for train travel, which produces far less greenhouse gas emissions than flying. According to the European Environment Agency, a plane trip emits 285 grams of carbon dioxide, while trains only emit 14 grams.
Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg arrives to speak at a climate change march in Berlin. Image by Michele Tantussi/Getty Images
For the most part, the movement was kicked off by Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old climate change activist who garnered headlines when she initiated a worldwide school strike in the name of the environment. Since that 2018 strike, Thunberg has become a representative of youth climate change action, and she has travelled by rail to the World Economic Forum in Davos – a 32-hour trip – to deliver her message.
The hashtag #stayontheground has since taken hold of the social media accounts of famous Swedes, such as skiing commentator and former Olympian Björn Ferry, and hundreds of workers in the film industry have signed a petition to limit shoots abroad.
A train running through Stockholm. Image by Marcus Stork/Getty Images
‘I’m certainly affected by my surroundings and (flight shame) has affected how I view flying,’ Viktoria Hellstrom, a 27-year-old student in Stockholm, told AFP. Last year, she took a train to Italy to meet a few friends who’d arrived by plane. “The only way I could justify going there was if I took the train,” she said, adding that it would’ve been her second flight in two weeks.
In recent years, the rise of low-cost airlines has contributed to more Swedes opting for air travel. According to a 2018 study from the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden’s aviation emissions were five times that of the global average. The Swedish national rail operator SJ has reported a 21% spike in train travel bookings this winter, and the government has also announced a plan to roll out night trains to major European cities by 2022.
Others caution letting flight shame take all the credit for Swedes’ changing travel patterns. Frida Hylander, a Swedish psychologist, said other factors might be at play, such as an unusually hot summer last year that sparked massive wildfires and might have caused wider concerns about climate change. A new tax on flights was introduced last year, Hylander said, which might have led to fewer bookings, and the 2018 bankruptcy of Swedish airline NextJet led to the closure of several domestic fights for a few months.
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