Below, we share the thoughts, and even more importantly, practice of Gergely Litkai, comedian, scriptwriter, and, well, we can probably say green influencer, on how he manages not to fly, and since when he gave up flying almost entirely.
In the following, with his permission, we publish his thoughts that we translated from Hungarian. The original can be read on LinkedIn in Hungarian. As Gergely shared his thoughts in a Hungarian context, the infographics below depict the Hungarian priorities regarding low-carbon lifestyle options. For data in other countries, please check here.
So…
“Following the suggestions made in the Guide to 1.5° Lifestyles (HU / ENG) by GreenDependent Institute as a partner of the EU 1.5° Lifestyles project, I share my own experience, first on mobility, in an individual-system context.
1. Regarding mobility, just like in any lifestyle domain, it is best to focus on the most impactful issues and significant changes. Also for our health, unless we are doing it in an extremely polluted area, it is best to walk or cycle, and there is even a difference between walking and cycling, as the energy use itself will be higher when walking than cycling. But it is worth doing it with a better BMI as our calorie use per kilogram of body weight increases. Though charging an electric bike and producing the bike itself is much more energy intensive, plus the physiological benefits are less than riding an ordinary bike, but if you live in a hilly area and need to commute to work from there, it might be a justified to make the change in the first place. The place of residence is the deciding factor here, as living in Budapest, it is more logical to walk or use public transport than to drive. This saves a lot of time that you can then use to spend with your family, doing exercises, reading, etc. In fact, in the morning, I walk my youngest child to nursery school, which is already 2 kilometres of walking, and at the same time we have a quality father-daughter time.
2. In the case of aviation, as shown in the figure below, we can easily cancel out our annual emissions budget for a 1.5-degree lifestyle with a single flight. I don't fly at all (I have flown only once in the past 6 years), and neither does most of my family. However, historically, I can say that I was the USA (in terms of carbon footprint), as up until 6 years ago I had very high emissions. But now, for holidays we tend to go to places that are relatively close to us, and for weekend trips we have travelled by train several times, for example to Vienna. (It is important to know that a large part of the population doesn't fly already as they can't afford to travel abroad at all[i].)
3. Regarding public transport, Hungary is doing quite well. I haven't really found any recent figures, but in 2019, before COVID, we were among the top 3 countries in the European Union in terms of passenger kilometres (see here, based on Eurostat data). At the system level, which is fine for me, but perhaps not for the country financially, the county public transport pass is a very good (and cheap!) option. It is great for weekend trips within Pest County[i] (Pest is huge!), and even the train/bus ticket is cheaper, if you travel outside of the county as and you need to buy an extra only for the journey from the county border. The things that are not so good about trains are the delays, the often unacceptably bad quality of the trains themselves and the far from competitive journey times. However, if you look at it from the point of view of adventure and relaxation, and resign yourself to slow travel, it's still a pretty good option. I think driving in the city is generally a mistake, but in some parts of the country it is harder to find a local public transport alternative.
4. As for going around and travelling by car, I’ll open that discussion in a new post. I’ll discuss how fast I drive, what type of car I drive, how many of us travel together, and so on.”
Gergely Litkai, translated by Edina Vadovics, GreenDependent
* Másfélfokos életmód útmutató (Guide to 1.5° Lifestyles, Hungarian version)
** Guide to 1.5° Lifestyles (English version)