Words by Caeleigh Alexander, Art by Maria Mayer
Besides tuition, international students are paying for university in CO2 as well.
While aviation makes up for only a small percentage of the ~14.8% of greenhouse gas emissions coming from the transport sector, it adds to our own carbon footprints drastically. Giving students knowledge about the sustainable choices they can make and the consequences if they choose to ignore this issue allows the opportunity for a small effort to make a big difference.
My roundtrip flight from Newark (EWR) to Edinburgh (EDI) equates to about 1.6 metric tons of CO2. I have taken this flight 5 times, giving me 8 tons of CO2 emitted. Plus, I add on an additional 4.2 tons each time as I must fly from EWR to my home in Texas. Overall, I am linked directly to the emission of 12.2 tons of CO2 just by my commute to and from school. For reference, this is the equivalent to the emissions of 2 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year, 13,666 pounds of coal burned, an entire home’s average energy use for one year, or 1,484,040 smartphones charging.
… Deep breaths, I know this information can be quite overwhelming. As an international student, I am grateful to attend a world-class university and be able to live in a country making major green energy advancements. However, how do I find peace with the fact that my commute is emitting 12.2 tons of CO2 emissions?
According to the EPA’s greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator, my commute’s emissions are equal to the same amount sequestered by 14.5 acres of US forests in one year or prevented by 4.22 tons of waste recycled over landfill. These emissions from flights add up quickly. To put them in perspective, the average emissions per person in the UK is around 10 tons, a number much smaller than the emissions of an international student just from flights alone. Aiming to offset this amount feels impossible, and I want to know if other international students share this same guilt. What can we do to deal with this eco-anxiety? What realistic initiatives can we take to offset our personal footprint?
In my search for these answers, I interviewed two other international students, who also travel long distances for their education.
When speaking to a fourth year from Hong Kong, Student HK, we calculated together that her flights to and from school over her entire undergraduate degree came to a total of 12.8 tons. As we talked about eco-anxiety, she mentioned how it mostly affects her when thinking of it as an add-on to her usual stress about world affairs. “Looking at Palestine, I think about the carbon load from the bombings as well as the events taking place”, she expressed that this is where her anxiety about world events converges. This point really struck me as it highlights how the climate crisis branches into all areas of study and global issues, which should highlight the need for immediate effective action against it. Often, due to climate change having a reputation as being a “far-away” issue (it definitely isn’t), humanity sees politics as separate from the climate, despite its very real political urgency and present effects.
She was similar to another international interviewee from Singapore, Student SG, in that they both felt a degree of helplessness against the climate crisis. “It sometimes seems like the world is ending, but I don’t know what to do about it”. As a Singaporean second year who returns home often, she has a large commute and about 27 tons of CO2 emitted total. After we calculated her footprint together, she agreed that it was a major climate issue, but she felt less anxiety about it since it was a necessary cost for her education.
Having been met with these different perspectives, I sought out more information. How much do our individual emissions matter for the climate crisis?
Back in 2017, it was shown that 100 companies are responsible for 70.6% of global GHG emissions, 32% of which were from companies listed on StockExchange, 59% publicly owned, and 9% privately owned. More specifically, emission pollution by air travel is a characteristic of our developing world. With only 11% of the world population using air transport in 2018, 1% are responsible for half of global aviation emissions. These numbers tell us about how little the state is doing to regulate and control emissions. However, as expressed by Student SG earlier, information like this can encourage climate inaction as the change needed to address the climate crisis feels far out of individual hands.
While we might feel insignificant in the global climate crisis, taking steps like putting pressure on our governments to move towards cleaner energy investments and boycotting certain companies (and airlines) that don’t reflect our climate-consciousness helps to create efficient change.
We can make a difference by demanding action, especially as young people. By joining organizations, making informed voting decisions, lobbying your representatives, and supporting legislation that promotes higher fossil fuel restrictions, you can push governments and large companies towards securing a safe future and low-lying communities a safe present. Major fossil fuel companies have spent millions on preventing policy-making towards climate change or any other environmental restrictions that may limit their profit goals. This is why it is so important to show public resistance and personal defiance towards decisions and products that have direct connections to fossil fuel companies. This includes thinking sustainably for even the most necessary things like flights to school.
There are positive advancements being made that might make this transition easier for international students. The UK’s Department for Transport with Virgin Atlantic is currently funding a project to get the first net-zero transatlantic flight off the ground. While these planes, traveling on 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), won’t be in widespread commercial use for a while, advancements like these are important for moving towards an aviation industry with less greenhouse gas emissions. In the meantime, we can avoid airlines that have been recorded for polluting the most.
One of the cheapest yet most popular airlines in Europe, Ryanair, has gone backwards from its promising pledge towards greener travel after the pandemic. Its emissions totaled to 13.3 million tons of CO2 in 2022, surpassing its total in 2019. Bigger airlines like Lufthansa and AirFrance are also at the top for pollution but pay a much smaller carbon price (€/ton of CO2) than others in the lineup, reflecting the inefficiencies of the allowances emissions trading systems give them. Although it may seem difficult to change our alliances to trusted airlines, it’s how we can take a small step toward supporting a greener economy, directing the flow of money away from fossil fuels and other polluting industries.
Sustainable airlines like KLM and All Nippon Airways are working towards making more of their routes rely on biofuels and are examples of sustainable airlines that you could transition to. Besides switching airlines, it’s also possible to have a smaller footprint by seat choice (business economy takes up more space and waste) or flying direct (less traveling). These are initiatives we can take as international students to lower our carbon footprints and act more sustainably.
Eco-anxiety is very real and present in today’s youth. Students HK and SG’s interviews demonstrated how eco-anxiety can often occur in the background, adding onto everyday difficulties. We have been left with a climate that is becoming unsustainable for human life and a system built on supporting industries that speed up the process. However, we cannot let these anxieties consume our ability to take action towards restructuring our economies and governments. Although aviation is often considered a small part of the larger problem, it is a domain which we have much agency over and that can drastically increase our carbon footprints. Individual action in moving towards a net-zero world plays a big part as we are the customers and citizens that ultimately decide how things progress. Especially in the context of information pinpointing only a small group of people as responsible for most emissions, it is easy to feel insignificant to the climate movement; however, our own choices can influence others and our vote matters.
As international students, we owe it to the world to act with an international mindset, making decisions that encourage collective action towards climate change mitigation.
Useful Links:
UnEarth Magazine. 
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