Making Reparation: Offset Your Life - Stolen Future, Broken Present: The Human Significance of Climate Change - page 143

venture continually to the far pavilions. Yet because we inherit the con-
sequences of that mobility for our own lives, we may find ourselves far
removed, and perhaps permanently, from family members.
Perhaps a good compromise is to be honest about what we can do, but
also what we cannot give up; perhaps we should accept what has already
taken place—such as our moving far away from family members—and
thus accept occasional air travel to see them. But such a reason cannot
serve us forever. As time goes by, we should take steps, wherever we can,
to rejoin those we love and ind far more local and setled ways to live.
Adopting an environmental ethic will inevitably force us to rethink our
improbable atempt to combine distance and intimacy.
Similar pressures abound elsewhere. Should members of various
professions atend annual conferences intended to keep them apprised
of developments in their fields? How well could they share information
without meeting face to face? To cover contemporary events, journalists
fly to destinations here or abroad in order to observe developments first-
hand. How urgent must developments be to justify such a large environ-
mental footprint? Salespeople, consultants, businesspeople, board mem-
bers, and executives—to give a partial list—are among the nation's most
frequent fliers; how are they to conduct their business?
Insofar as these professions take for granted that flying should be rou-
tine , that it must become in part a frequent activity over the year, they
have accepted what amounts to the perpetual abuse of the biosphere. The
assumption that actions of such harm should be ordinary must go. As
a result, those professions must evolve very quickly into another form,
relying instead on alternative forms of contact, such as videoconferenc-
ing, to conduct ordinary business. Such a change is in fact plausible if
those in such fields make a concerted effort over the next few years. But
calling for an absolute ban on face-to-face encounters might go too far
and create a backlash against this entire effort. Here again, one might
justify occasional flights on the basis of the most pressing needs or most
fruitful encounters.
Even further questions arise when we contemplate our place in the
international community. How are we to break out of an insular nar-
rowness if we cannot travel to other countries, learn their languages,
and partake in their cultural traditions? Artists, performers, filmmakers,