As I step onto the bus for school, the sun feels harsher than usual.
Is this a result of climate change [1] or simply my anxiety? Today is the day students learn whether they’ve been accepted to their chosen university. I check my email, unable to wait.
“The University of Birmingham is pleased to offer…”
I don’t bother reading the rest.
I brush the sweat off my forehead and look up in the sky in appreciation. An airplane catches my eye, and I picture the experiences awaiting me. But I also begin to think about the emissions left in the wake of every flight.
Oh, the irony!
As a Sustainable Energy Engineering student, I now plan to travel almost 5,000 miles to London from Vancouver. What about getting to Birmingham? Will this require another flight? How about food? As someone who cooks their own food and uses local ingredients, will I now be reliant on take-out and delivery methods that introduce more plastic and greenhouse gases into our environments [2]? These questions avalanche through my mind like an unstable snowpack giving way as a result of climate change [3].
I feel the sweat on my forehead again, this time because of my own actions.
When I arrive on campus, I head straight for the library, clutching my phone with my offer letter open as if it were my boarding pass to a more sustainable future. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. After spending years studying sustainability, my greatest academic opportunity seems to be tied to the very systems I’ve been taught to improve.
I relax, brush the sweat off my forehead for the second time today (and hopefully last), and begin to think of how I can still be sustainable in this unsustainable journey.
I realize that the airplane no longer represents contradiction. It represents responsibility. I cannot make every journey carbon neutral, but I can make every choice that follows a conscious one. Sustainability is not measured by a single flight across the Atlantic. It is measured by the thousands of decisions that come after landing.
Once in Birmingham, every decision becomes mine again. The flight may be unavoidable, but choosing to walk to class instead of a taxi is not. Cycling across the city’s extensive bike network instead of driving is not [4]. Taking the train to explore Britain instead of another domestic flight is another conscious choice, especially with the student rail discounts offered [5].
I want to experience Birmingham the way its residents do, not through big malls and disposable conveniences, but through local pubs, cafés, neighbourhood markets, and conversations with people who call the city home. Sustainable travel is not only about reducing emissions, it is about respecting the places generous enough to welcome us.
References:
[1]
https://climateatlas.ca/climate-change-basics
[2] https://seas.umich.edu/news/u-m-study-finds-reusable-take-out-food-containers-can-significantly-reduce-plastic-waste
[3]
[4]
https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/student/travelling-to-campus/low-traffic-cycle-routes.aspx
[5]
https://www.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk/tickets-discounts/discounts/student-season-train-tickets
