Should Lindsey fly? 28 June 06

George Monbiot recently coined the term ‘love miles’ to describe the airmiles totted up by those with family and lovers spread across different continents. It’s a neat term because it plays on the well-known ‘food miles’, as well as encapsulating the emotional dilemma many of us feel when trying to save the climate without cutting family and close relationships adrift.

Here’s a particularly difficult choice, emailed to me by Lindsey Buckle in Australia. Read it and if you have any suggestions, she’d be happy to hear them. I’m posting it with permission from her.

“Four years ago, when I was a care-free twenty-something living the capitalist high life in London, not entirely unaware but not particularly cogniscant of climate change issues, I met my Australian partner. When he decided to move back to Australia, fed up with capitalism, affluenza and the rat-race I decided to follow him for a quieter life where I could concentrate on matters that were more important to my heart. Ironically, one of those matters is family. Others are my relationship with my partner and, of course, climate change.

Three years on I am questioning whether I did the right thing. I love my life-style in Australia and feel much more in tune with nature and the world around me. I am slowly making environmentally positive changes to my life. Thankfully, my salary does not afford me the luxury of spending without justification (well, maybe occasionally). We are replacing most of our light bulbs with energy saving bulbs. We always switch the TV off (as opposed to standby) when we’re not watching it – which is most of the time because Australian TV is rubbish. We switch our computers off every night and during the day when we’re at work. Most, if not all of our electricity is obtained from renewable sources (mainly bio-mass) as part of the energy company’s green program. We ride or walk short distances rather than driving. When possible we catch a bus on nights out rather than taking a taxi. Locals are amazed when they hear that I don’t have a car or even a driving licence – most of them didn’t even know there was a bus service.

However, where I live the public transport system is awful; my bus to work only runs once an hour and it takes about 2 1/2 hours to get to the city on the train (we only live about an hour’s drive away). Everywhere in this country is so far apart that it’s extremely impractical to travel on business or to visit my best friend in Sydney without flying. I am at odds with many of the government’s energy and environmental policies. The economy is so heavily reliant on coal exports that the only thing Australia seems capable of considering as an alternative is nuclear and that’s because of its massive uranium reserves.

I miss my family and friends in England. Last July I flew home for my sister’s wedding. This December I am flying home for my first family Christmas in four years. These things are very important to me and even if big events weren’t happening, in an ideal world I would like to visit once every two years and I often encourage family and friends to visit me here. Lately, I have been feeling incredibly guilty about this and I really don’t know what to do. I thought about investing in a carbon neutralisation program and have investigated a few options but I don’t really know how effective a solution this is. I sent my parents an extract from the last chapter of your book and my mother has just replied asking “so don’t you want us to come and visit you then?”. I really don’t know how to resolve these conflicting emotions of wanting to spend as much time as possible with my family and friends and the guilt of travelling by air.

As I said, I love my life-style and the weather (although in summer when I’m only just coping with the heat the thought of it getting a degree or two warmer fills me with horror) and I’m not entirely sure I’d be happier back in England. And if I did come home would I bring my partner with me? He certainly wouldn’t be happy living permanently in the UK as he loves the outdoor water-sports kind of life and it would only serve to take him away from his family and move the problem to the other side of the world, so that we feel guilty travelling from England to Australia instead. Or do I put the planet before my own feelings and needs and leave him? Wouldn’t this be an extreme reaction? It certainly would be one which would fill me with regret for the rest of my life as I consider my partner my future. Perhaps when we have our own children it will be less of an issue. We won’t be able to afford to fly as often and I would have my own family in Australia. But I suspect it would be more of an issue as I grow more reliant on my own mother and become determined that my parents and sister shouldn’t be strangers to my children.

I do like the idea of carbon rationing. Whilst it would probably price the flights home out of my range I would know that I am only causing as much damage as I can afford to. Let’s just say it would ease my conscience. Somehow having the choice makes it harder to bear. Incidentally, I have mixed emotions regarding the rising cost of fuel. Whilst I hope it will encourage people to think twice about driving short distances and stop the growing popularity of SUVs (it makes me so mad when I see people driving pristine 4WDs around suburbia), it does concern me that I just won’t be able to afford to visit home.

As I said to my mother in response to her email this morning, I feel like a child who has had a chocolate bar waved in his face only to be told he can’t have it. To have grown up in a global world so full of opportunities where international travel is so easy (and don’t get me wrong, I always felt lucky for this) and to establish my life as an adult based upon these principles, only to learn that we’re causing unknown and potentially irreparable damage if we continue is depressing and confusing to say the least.”