Taking a Trip Free of Eco-Anxiety and Flygskam

Shame as a motivator has been studied for years by psychologists and may serve as an impetus for change. But in this age of eco-anxiety is it really empowering us to make the changes we need to make?

Sweden ranks among the top 5 most sustainable countries on many a sustainability index. This can be witnessed in several aspects of life, not just flying. Our homes are heated with the garbage we produce. So much so, that the country ran out of garbage and has had to import it from other countries. And almost every busy high street has a second-hand shop that is bustling with eager shoppers looking for a hidden gem.

I’ve lived in Stockholm for the last two years. I moved here from the Netherlands and I see a growing number of young professionals feeling guilty about jetting off to some exotic location for their holidays. Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish climate activist, isn’t the only Swede to shun the skies and take on the high seas in light of the climate crisis. There has been a distinct drop in passengers at Sweden’s airport. The BBC reported that between January 2019 to April 2019 the number of passengers at the country’s busiest airports fell by 8%. A term has been coined for this pervasive feeling – flygskam – or flying shame.

From shaming to sharing

Shame as a motivator has been studied for years by psychologists and may serve as an impetus for change. But in this age of eco-anxiety is it really empowering us to make the changes we need to make? 

Personally, as a woman, I am very familiar with the debilitating aspects of shame impinged on our gender by society. It isn’t very empowering. So, I’d like to approach reducing my carbon footprint less out of shame and more out of a genuine desire and urgency to make a positive impact. I try to reduce my carbon footprint by not owning a car, taking public transport and using trains for short trips and holidays. And I tend to take a more adventurous view to a little weekend getaway. It’s an adventure on its own to take a holiday without a trip to the airport – without breaking the bank. 

I’ve found that many parts of the world have many options that are waiting to be explored.

All aboard!

The train service across Europe is extremely well organized; anyone who’s taken a gap year around Europe can attest to it. Many countries power their trains with renewable energy. The trains within the Netherlands, for example, are powered by 100% wind energy.  When I lived in The Netherlands, my husband and I took weekend trips to off-beat destinations around the country. The Dutch train service even offers weekend deals. And if you don’t speak Dutch you could use google translate to navigate the Dutch website. 

Of course, if one doesn’t live in Europe, one will need to fly here from someplace. Holidays afforded to most working folk are brief and taking a ship may not really be an option in terms of time. But then instead of hopping from country to country by flight one could cut the carbon footprint of a holiday by taking the hi-speed train, say from Frankfurt to Copenhagen. Nothing beats watching the beautiful countryside speed by. If you’re in Stockholm, you could take the train to neighbouring capitals like Helsinki or Oslo. Or even take a trip up north to see the Northern lights. These trains can be quite reasonably priced if booked well in advance. I once booked a return trip to Copenhagen on a very comfortable train for $40.

Not just in Europe

That said, train travel isn’t just efficient in Europe. In India too, the country with the fourth largest train network in the world, trains weave through and connect many parts of the country that are otherwise unreachable by plane. Having grown up in India, I must admit it used to be a hassle to stand in serpentine lines waiting to book your ticket. But with the train booking going online this time-consuming step has been cut out. You get to see a lot more of the country this way.

These are just a few of the ways I circumvent using the plane. But I do have to take it when I have to visit my family in India. But rather than riddling myself with the shame, I offset my CO2, an option provided by some airlines, and I find ways to contribute to the sustainability index of the country I am visiting. For example, in India, where water is scarce, I avoid wasting water and indulging in long showers, and wherever I go I don’t buy omnipresent disposable plastic bags and bottles. However, inconvenient it may be at the time.

Making An Annual Report Sing

is no mean feat. Particularly for a non-profit. Here are three small tweaks that, I find, make an annual report easier to read and leave the reader feeling ‘Oh! this organisation has had such a huge impact with our investment’ or ‘I’d like to contribute to this cause in some way’.

Using sensory words

Throwing in a word or two that evokes an image, or a feeling, sparks the readers’ imagination and gently draws them in. For e.g. the initial reaction to the programme was lukewarm. But over time our outreach efforts resonated within the community and drew a sharp rise in their engagement.

Although annual reports are a legal document and need to sound professional, they don’t have to be a dry narrative. While writing or editing an annual report – even through the many rounds of edits – I try to bear in mind that there will be a person at the end of the line. A consummate professional. But a person, nonetheless.

Captioning images

There is already a lot of debate and parody surrounding the imagery employed by the non-profit sector in their fundraising efforts. I’m sure you know. However, although visuals now happily encourage empowerment rather than entice sympathy, the images used often lack context. Particularly in print. Inserting a caption under the image of say – a smiling mother and child, adds legitimacy, context and gives the text surrounding it a whole new layer.

Telling a tale

Human-interest stories often get left out of annual reports. Perhaps, because it is such a formal document. But adding a small box with a story of how a particular project changed someone’s life for the better does not detract from the validity and legitimacy of the document. It doesn’t have to be a tall tale. And don’t the in-depth accounts, statistics and other elements do a good job of adding the necessary gravitas to the report? So, if you have a story – why not squeeze it in?

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“Words – so innocent and powerless as they are, standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become, in the hands of one who knows how to combine them”

– The American Notebooks 1848 by Nathaniel Hawthorne

SEO Writing: Putting People First

In this day and age, content writing or copywriting without bearing SEO, or search engine optimisation, in mind is like putting together an elaborate play and forgetting to sell the tickets. Without SEO the audience will be sparse. At least online. But I’ve noticed that the interest of the reader starts to wither when SEO becomes the primary focus of the content development process.

But… keywords are king!

In a way, yes, they are. A headline with keywords, or a cleverly crafted string of keywords (that scores precious backlinks), might generate traffic to one’s website and draw your reader in. And granted, according to Forbes, only 59% of readers read beyond the headline. So, the power of attention-grabbing search engine optimized headlines is undeniable. However, writing primarily with SEO and not the end-user in mind can sometimes lead to some very baffling content that stops the reader in their tracks. Particularly in the development sector. Let me explain why.

Off the bat, let me repeat that these observations are for the development sector – for organisations working on goals like empowering people, protecting the planet and other similar missions.

Audiences differ

After working in the sector for over a decade and performing many surveys and analyses on the content consumption in the sector, I’ve learned two key things about the sector’s readers/audience.

Firstly, the intention with which a person will click on your headline is very different from the motivation behind them clicking on a headline saying, for e.g. ‘three places on everyone’s bucket list’. Their motivation is often a genuine desire to learn or make a change for the betterment of themselves or others.

Secondly, people who would click on your headline are often keen to engage (positively) in some way or another. Whether it is to re-tweet the article, donate, or leave a comment. If the content is hollow and mechanical, they may not return. No matter how many riveting keywords the next headline might have.

Click and stay

Of course, there are a few who merely respond to the clickbait in the headline. But, in my experience, a majority of the people who do click on content pertaining to topics like protecting human rights or the environment are genuinely interested in knowing more. With the growing urgency surrounding climate change, this number is increasing – fast.

I find it vital to keep these readers/end-users engaged with accurate and informative content – it doesn’t just stop at the keywords. I use all the tools at my disposal even SEO to draw them in, and keep them interested, so organisations like yours can share their whole story. Because what’s the point of selling the tickets to a play when no-one stays to watch the whole show?

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“Readers are not sheep and not every pen tempts them”

–  Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov

Storytelling to Ease Eco-Anxiety and Inspire Action

A couple of months ago the Guardian, Britain’s leading newspaper, announced that they would be changing the language around climate change. Instead of referring to the crisis as ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’. They would be referring to it as a crisis, emergency or global heating. Which more accurately describes the plight of the planet.

For years it has been organisations in the development sector that have tried to sound the alarm that a crisis is upon us. And now, almost decades later, as people are listening, has the role of the non-profit sector changed?

What should we be saying now that the leading newspapers and international organisations agree that ‘yes we are indeed in the midst of a crisis’?

I’d venture, that non-profit and development organisations now need to pave the road to recovery. It is a tall ask. Yes.

The fight against eco-anxiety

But, it is one the sector has been preparing for. Most organisations have archives and archives of solutions for reforestation, cleaning up the oceans, reducing greenhouse gases, renewable energy and more. I know, because I’ve spent hours wading through them.

Now, it’s extremely vital to dig into these archives and share your lessons learned. The type of content that you share now is crucial. Shocking the audience into dealing with the problem without providing solutions that can empower people just increases already high levels of eco-anxiety and causes people, you’d like to get on board, to shut down.

Harbingers of hope

So, let’s share solutions, solutions and more solutions. Let’s share impact stories of small ventures that have worked wonders in places that were forgotten, dry and arid wastelands. Let’s share stories of how fishing initiatives actually helped saved depleted mangroves. Or how an agriculture project generated jobs and income.

Through your website, articles and social media your non-profit can share its know-how and become a harbinger of hope in a time when it’s sorely needed.

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Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be…”


– Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood by William Wordsworth