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Climate-Conscious Man Travels 13,500 Miles From UK To China Without Flying Once

Climate-Conscious Man Travels 13,500 Miles From UK To China Without Flying Once

Roger Tyers kicked off his journey in Southampton, where he went on to take 24 trains across nine countries.

EMS 7

EMS 7

A man from the UK took an epic 13,500-mile trip over to China without stepping on a plane once.

Climate-conscious research fellow Roger Tyers kicked off his journey in Southampton, where he went on to take 24 trains across nine countries before reaching his final destination.

The 37-year-old ended up at the Chinese port city of Ningbo in order to conduct academic research. However, the cost of his journey set him back a whopping £2,000 ($2,600) in total - almost triple the price of a return flight.

That said, it also caused 90 percent less emissions than it would if he'd gone the traditional route, something that was at the forefront of Roger's mind when he started to plan his trip.

Twitter/@RogerTyersUK

Speaking to CNN, the sociologist revealed that he felt compelled to stop taking flights when UN climate experts warned last year that the world has less than 11 years to avoid catastrophic levels of climate change.

He said: "It's hard to understand how polluting air travel is and the amount of energy and kerosene it takes to put people in the air and get them across the planet."

And while you might wonder how one individual can make a difference, Roger isn't alone on his quest to save the planet.

Twitter/@RogerTyersUK

In fact, activist Maja Rosen launched the 'Flight Free' campaign last year in a bid to convince 100,000 people to not fly for an entire year, the aim being to significantly slash pollution caused by aircraft fuel emissions.

Although they didn't quite hit the target, with 14,000 people signing up, Rosen said that it's made people aware of the issue and the startling facts that come with it.

Twitter/@RogerTyersUK

To put things in perspective, a return flight from London to New York causes as much CO2 as the average person does heating their home for an entire year in Europe.

The campaign also saw thousands of people taking small steps to help out. For example, a survey released in May by Swedish Railways showed that 37 percent of participants chose train over plane where possible - a 17 percent increase from the same period the previous year.

A spokesperson for the railway line said: "Rail travel is soaring thanks to climate fears."

Meanwhile, Rosen, who stopped travelling via plane 12 years ago, said the campaign helped to offer a glimmer of hope in the ongoing battle against climate change.

She said: "One of the problems is that people feel there's no point in what you do as an individual. The campaign is about making people aware that if we do this together, we can actually make a huge difference."

Featured Image Credit: Twitter/@RogerTyersUK

Topics: flight, Global Warming, Airplane, climate change, UK, China