The original renditions of this article were written for a class taught by Karin Fischer at the University at Albany, SUNY, International Educational Management and Leadership program. Many, many thanks to Karin and to my classmates for their support in writing this article.

Like many international educators, I encounter an inner struggle each time I fly on a plane or encourage others to pursue opportunities that require air travel. In college I both studied abroad and actively protest fossil fuel divestment. Often, my work to help others find transformative experiences overseas and my passion for international travel contend with my desperation to save our planet.

The US Bureau of Transportation Statistics reports 126.1 million (non-unique) passengers on foreign airlines flying to and from the US in 2019, in addition to a total of 926.7 million passengers on US airlines flying domestically and internationally. That’s over a BILLION passengers reported flying domestically within the US and internationally to and from the US in one year, totaling to 125.35 million flights annually.

Even though it is difficult to calculate the number of flights that are attributed to international education, we can estimate: 1.1 million international students studying in the US in the 2018/2019 academic year; nearly 350,000 US students studying abroad that same year; let’s set a high average of 5 flights a year per student;  international education is contributing to approximately 5% of international flights to and from the United States.

This is overwhelming data. It demonstrates that we need to continue the good work of trying to mitigate flying in our sphere of influence, international education, but it also demonstrates that even if we stop student mobility entirely, we are still left with mitigating business and leisure travel.

I am not pointing this out to make you feel hopeless. I am pointing this out to say, “Hey, this issue is bigger than international education, and we need to do what we can at every level we have access to.” Yes, as international educators, we are trying to act on our personal responsibilities to support efforts within our field. But we are lacking on supporting collective efforts in higher education and beyond. We are focusing too much on our individual impact at the micro level. We need to do that and more, collectively, to address the scope of this crisis.

The myth of individual responsibility

International educators emphasize that our solution is to cap the amount we and our students fly. As Richard Slimbach addresses, our ability to fly is a privilege that we can live without. Our focus in international education is limited by this idea that we just shouldn’t fly – it’s like we can’t dream or be creative beyond the idea that less flying as the end-all solution. Part of the problem is that in the United States, the responsibility for climate change is put on the individual. And that doesn’t work.  

“The Carbon Footprint Sham” is an article in Mashable written by Mark Kaufman that breaks down how British Petroleum (BP) promoted the idea of everyone figuring out what their “carbon footprint” in order to determine how to lower that footprint. Kaufman references several studious folks who pull back the curtain in Oz: A gas and oil company didn’t do this because they are “climate conscious” – it was a propaganda scheme to put the onus on the individual. Why? Well, after Kaufman breaks down the impact COVID-19 has had on carbon emissions and notes that it’s not the individual carbon use that’s a problem, its big businesses, it’s clear that BP’s genius marketing scheme worked. Kaufman quotes Benjamin Franta, a J.D.-Ph.D. student: “The strategy is to put as much blame on the consumer as possible, knowing the consumer is not in a good place to control the situation…It basically ensures that nothing changes.”

We need to focus more energy on shifting policy, which takes collective action

When we consider collective impact, the most influence we can have is through political activism. Activists take their individual rights and power to the next level. Activists work to educate people, to encourage and help people to vote, and to show the government what lies in collective power and action.

Activism can also be used to drive grassroots consumer choices, but we live in an age where the power of convenience is overwhelming. Our time is better spent focusing on policy because if the convenience of plastic bags, for example, is taken away, we are forced to adapt and won’t fall back on the allure of convenience. Take California as an example – a follow-up study after the enactment of a no-plastic-bag law in 2016 demonstrated a significant decrease in the amount of plastic bags used by customers. This isn’t possible without policy because we fall back on convenience, or we can’t afford to partake. Inclusive policy can address financial hardship and enable everyone to participate.

If you have to pick where you direct your activism efforts, aim them towards shifting policy: this way, the responsibility does not rest on the individual to make the choice between a better planet and convenience.

There are two places we need to shift policy: in our government, and in our institutions. To achieve the vision we have of our planet in the future, we need to vote for climate reform, which includes the little things (plastic bags) and the big things: We need to divest our own funds from a dark future, and reinvest in a sustainable future – and we need to take our decisions to our university and college leaders, demanding they do the same.

What I’m saying is… it’s time for international educators to get political.

How to advocate for sustainable climate policy as an international educator

Advocacy, a piece of activism, is already in our toolkit. NAFSA has defined advocacy as one of the key cross-cutting professional competencies in international education. We do it all the time – even if you are not signing every petition, you are reminding your colleagues to keep international students in mind, working with faculty and the Registrar to get courses approved, etc. There are little ways to be an advocate, and there are big ways in IE. The same goes for climate policy.

Here are 3 tacks all international educators – and any educators – can take to expand our commitment beyond educational impact and make an effective political impact:

1) Support voices: University divestment has been historically effective at stigmatizing investments, the movement to divest from Apartheid in South Africa in the 1980’s as the strongest example, and since we work at universities, we can support the students, faculty and staff advocating for divestment. This doesn’t have to mean we join the physical protest (big kudos if you do), but it can mean contributing our ideas, mentoring, and other forms of standing in solidarity.

2) Use your voice: In the realm of strategy during COVID-19, all of our institutions are trying to redraw the landscape. When higher education is disrupted, that is the best time to make necessary change. Jim Cramer sounded the death knell on fossil fuel stocks in early January of 2020, meaning he thinks they will continue to decrease in value over time, similar to a change in tobacco stocks decades ago. Why does he think this? Because young people are alarmed, and that will drive away interest in the market. . In his research on the environmental impact of students moving in between countries, Robin Shields draws on several studies to make the point that university structure itself needs to change to become more sustainable. Endowments are in flux – let’s push for more movement here, and now, and pull in our colleagues across campus for support. We are all here to serve our students – this is for those students.

3) Use your voice even more: Don’t feel like it’s the right time or place at your institution? Look to the broader community. Feel like you’re making strides at your institution? Still look to the broader community! Local actions impact local, state actions impact state. And both are effective. Here are three pieces of research that can help us direct our time, voices, and money to make the biggest impact:

a) Dietz et. Al. (2015): Electing representatives who propose strong climate policy correlates with lower emissions. Your vote matters – especially at the state level.

b) Muõz, Olzak, and Soule (2018): Protest is an impactful tool leading to policies that ultimately reduce state carbon emissions, particularly at the state level. So those protests held in big cities – especially your state capital – are very important.

c) Grant and Bogden (2017): At the local level, environmental nongovernmental organizations have the most influence over local politicians. This gives us something to think about when it comes to volunteering our time our making donations. Are there local organizations focused on promoting environmentally conscious policies or practices where we can volunteer our time? If we are active donors, are these also organizations where we can contribute money? Can we encourage our students to volunteer at these organizations?

What do we push for? Reinvestment in better, cleaner technology within and outside our institutions. This means investing in science just as much as we think about flying and not flying and being more open and educated on the research about all types of alternative energy sources. The more research and experimentation we fund not just as individuals, but at the government and even global levels, the more we discover, and the more safe and sustainable our solutions will be.

What does the future look like?

Whenever I am faced with a bit of existential crisis – “What is my purpose in this world, and am I doing everything I can to pursue it?” – I think back to my vision of the world in the future. In twenty years, I will be in my mid-40’s. Maybe, depending on how the next decade goes, I’ll decide to have kids. What do I want that world to look like for me and for them?

I’d like for us all to live on a healthy planet, care for healthy animals, and engage with healthy people – I see coexistence.

Travel is not absent from my vision. Flying isn’t even absent from my vision of the future. In fact, it’s integral – and I think you’ll agree – to the coexistence I want to see.

What we truly want is not for people to stop getting on planes – we want planes to run on clean energy. Getting political with our voices, time, and sometimes money, is how we get there.