Author(s): Shaun Hendy

Society | Climate Change and Enviromental Politics | Aotearoa

What happens when a leading New Zealand scientist (and frequent traveler) rules out flying for a year? From overnight buses to epic train journeys, Shaun Hendy's experiences speak to our desire to do something -anything- in the face of growing climate anxiety. #NoFly confronts the hard questions of one person's attempt 'to adapt'. Was this merely privileged virtue signalling? Did it compromise his work, his life? And has it left him feeling more optimistic that we can, indeed, reach a low-emissions future?

Description: "By avoiding planes for a year, I found that I had cut my carbon dioxide emissions from travel to just over 1 tonne. This was a reduction of 95 per cent from my 2017 carbon footprint from travel. It felt good." What happens when a leading New Zealand scientist (and frequent traveller) rules out flying for a year? From overnight buses to epic train journeys, Shaun Hendy's experiences speak to our desire to do something - anything - in the face of growing climate anxiety. #NoFly confronts the hard questions of one person's attempt `to adapt'. Was this initiative merely symbolic? Did it compromise his work, his life? And has it left him feeling more optimistic that we can, indeed, reach a low-emissions future?

Author Biography: Professor Shaun Hendy FRSNZ is Director of Te Punaha Matatini, a New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence hosted by the University of Auckland. Te Punaha Matatini is a national research network that uses methods from complex systems to solve problems for business and to develop better economic and environmental policies. Shaun teaches in both the Department of Physics and the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland. He has been awarded the Callaghan Medal by the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Prime Minister's Science Media Communication Prize for his work as a science communicator, as well as accolades for his research. Shaun is the author of Silencing Science (BWB, 2016), and co-authored Get Off the Grass with the late Sir Paul Callaghan (AUP, 2013).