Grounded: A pilot who quit flying to help tackle climate change works to change aviation, for good

🎤 Catch Safe Landing’s Todd Smith on the latest episode of the Mongabay podcast: 

“Todd Smith didn’t intend to quit his career as a commercial pilot, but a visit to the Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru, which has been receding by about 60 meters, or 200 feet, per year, prompted a frank personal examination of the airline industry’s impacts on the planet. During a subsequent medical leave, he decided to quit his dream job and leave the industry, for good.”

Today, Smith is co-founder of the organization Safe Landing, which advocates for an aviation industry transition that adapts to the realities of climate change, adheres to carbon budgets, and ensures long-term employment for those who work in it. He joins the Mongabay Newscast to speak with Rachel Donald about his move away from being a pilot to advocating for industry reform, and what the industry needs to do to effect sustainable change.

“I don’t really want anyone to be grounded in the way that I have. I would love for an aviation worker to come into the industry and have a long-term career in an industry that’s compatible with the climate science,” Smith says on this episode. “If we do less now, then we might actually have a budget left when in 15 or 20 years’ time we have a next generation of aircraft, if we can scale green hydrogen, if there’s enough renewable energy to do that.”

Smith’s testimony gives credence to the fact that 50% of carbon emissions from the airline industry come from a tiny fraction — just 1% — of the global population. According to Oxfam International, an even smaller, but impactful, fraction of this class of fliers are billionaires logging hundreds of flight hours a year, producing as much carbon as the average human would emit in 300 years. Jeff Bezos’s two private jets spent 25 entire days in the air this year, spewing out as much carbon as a single Amazon employee would take 207 years to emit.

“I just started to see the whole industry with a different lens, a lens of privilege, and luxury … it is a small minority creating most harm,” Smith says.”

Listen at the link above or subscribe to/follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.

Rachel Donald is a climate corruption reporter and the creator of Planet: Critical, the podcast and newsletter for a world in crisis. Her latest thoughts can be found at 𝕏 via @CrisisReports and at Bluesky via @racheldonald.bsky.social.

Mike DiGirolamo is a host & associate producer for Mongabay based in Sydney. He co-hosts and edits the Mongabay Newscast. Find him on LinkedIn, Bluesky and Instagram.

Banner Image: Todd Smith dreamed of being an airline pilot since he was 5 years old. He left the aviation industry in 2020 and is now working to reform it. Image by Helena Dolby/courtesy of Todd Smith.