When it comes to ecology, they say they are making efforts on almost all subjects.
Meat is almost over for Chloé, Dominique, Pascale and Laura.
Single-use plastic, the same.
They prefer organic, local and seasonal vegetables.
Clothes, found second hand or from eco-responsible brands.
Everyday, sustainable transport: cycling, carpooling or train.
But like many environmentally conscious travelers, their Achilles heel is the plane.
The plane, which they know has a disastrous impact on the climate, but which allows them to fulfill their dreams of traveling to the other side of the world... Not without a certain guilt.
“
Two flights maximum per year”
“I know full well that my daily efforts are of no use if I continue to travel by plane, but a part of me does not feel ready to give it up,”
regrets Laura, a 30-year-old communicator whose education has was based on the idea that success and travel were intimately linked.
Her parents being expatriates, Laura traveled a lot.
She lived in the United Arab Emirates, then in Scotland.
It was therefore quite natural that for her higher studies, she chose an international school.
His
life goal
: to follow in his parents' footsteps and be able to work from anywhere.
Except that unlike them, Laura is one of the “global warming babies”.
That is to say, she was a young adult when the world began to become aware of Man's impact on the environment.
Among which, review the way you go on vacation.
And stop flying.
Which for her amounts to deconstructing the myth of travel, of “El Dorado”, with which she grew up.
Since vacations were enshrined in law, our collective consciences have integrated the fact that existence is divided between work and rest.
Laurent Tissot, historian specializing in tourism
“In our Western societies, since vacations were included in legal texts and in the law, our collective consciences have integrated the fact that existence is divided between work and rest. Rest that everyone is free to devote to their own development and which translates in the collective imagination into a “departure on vacation””
, translates Laurent Tissot, historian specializing in tourism and professor emeritus at the University of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland.
The plane being an integral part of this package for Laura.
And putting that aside, she's not quite ready for it.
She still thirsts for elsewhere, for distant horizons.
“Let's be clear, I try to take it as little as possible,”
assures the young thirty-year-old who is instructed to only board for trips lasting more than two weeks.
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Dominique, 54, human resources manager, made a pact with herself.
On the one hand, like Laura, she only reserves the plane for trips lasting more than two weeks.
Not less.
“To make the carbon spent profitable,”
she quips, well aware that her daily efforts will not compensate for her time on board… Second rule of her pact: she imposes a quota of two flights per year, maximum.
“Less, it would be frustrating, more, I would have too bad a conscience,”
she confesses.
Especially since within her company, it is she who is responsible for reserving tickets for executives who take the plane for professional reasons…
“I don’t want to spend everything on the trip”
Chloé, 31, mainly chooses to fly for financial and timing reasons.
“I don't earn thousands and cents so when I leave, I don't want to spend everything on the trip and/or spend two days on a train when I only have a week of vacation
, ”
she describes.
However, to leave for Florence as she planned at the end of January, the plane is priced from 167 euros for 1 hour 40 minutes of travel, compared to a minimum of 15 hours by train for 286 euros (cheapest option).
For this journalist, the choice is quickly seen.
But the fact remains: each time Chloé boards, she feels a slight discomfort.
That of its contradictions.
Because it's difficult to call yourself "green" while continuing to take the plane, the most polluting means of transport in the world according to the European Environment Agency (EEA).
Today, air traffic represents around 3% of global CO2 emissions, three times more than France's total emissions.
But not taking it at all is
“also difficult in such a globalized world”
concedes Alain Karsenty, socio-economist at CIRAD (Centre for international cooperation in agricultural research for development).
Pascale, 64, a former environmental engineer, has succeeded in reaching this milestone.
His last flight was two years ago.
She then went to Lapland for a trek and even though she had considered going there by train, she quickly realized the obvious: the road promised to be winding.
She would have had to take several trains, some at night, to cross all of Denmark and then Sweden... Discouraged, Pascale finally opted for the plane option.
But since then, she has sworn to herself: she will never be caught again.
This summer, she is going to the Vercors.
By train.
Also read: Young French people prefer to travel than save the planet
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