This podcast introduces listeners to the Flight Free UK pledge and features people who have taken the pledge for 2022.
Students will learn that the aviation industry is a major contributor to climate change and that people can greatly reduce their carbon footprints by avoiding flying.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Students will hear what made people decide to stop flying and how the decision has impacted their lives.
The podcast explains how individuals can make a big impact on their carbon footprint by deciding to stop flying.
Additional Prerequisites
The podcast is long, so teachers may want to choose specific sections to share with students.
The host is not encouraging people to never fly again, but trying to promote the benefits of vowing off flying for a year.
Differentiation
After listening to the podcast, students could reflect on a testimonial that resonated with them and discuss it with a small group using the following questions:
What made the testimonial impactful?
How did the person make you think differently about flying?
Would you consider taking the flight free pledge for a year? Why or why not?
The podcast host notes that many people start to find joy in overland travel because it forces them to slow down. In a language arts class, students could write about a time when slowing down allowed them to have an experience that they would not have otherwise had.
Other resources on this topic include this video on the growing popularity of high-speed trains, this Vox video on the ethics of air travel, and this fact sheet on the environmental impacts of aviation.
Scientist Notes
In order to reduce carbon emissions, the podcast emphasizes the significance of making a flight free commitment. The majority of air travel is not substantial, so there is a need to lessen flight frequency, consider sustainability, and take action to address climate injustice and the global disparities that affect low-income people who emit less yet experience the most negative effects of climate change. The resource is excellent for the classroom because of these moving testimonials and vows.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
HS-ESS3-3 Create a computational simulation to illustrate the relationships among management of natural resources, the sustainability of human populations, and biodiversity.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 4: Taking Informed Action
D4.7.6-8 Assess their individual and collective capacities to take action to address local, regional, and global problems, taking into account a range of possible levers of power, strategies, and potential outcomes.
