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Family overseas?
By admin | June 1, 2007
Q.I need to see my family overseas, so isn’t that different?
A. This is the toughest problem when deciding to take a pledge not to fly. You can decide today that you’ll be free from flying on holiday again, and look forward to finding new ways of getting abroad, or to discovering new places at home. If you have a holiday home in the sun that you can’t get to by train, you can sell it. But if close family live overseas, and you can’t travel to visit other than by plane, you are faced with the choice of either them flying to see you, or your flying to see them.
Maybe you have to accept that you will need to fly occasionally to visit family abroad. If this is the case, what can you do to minimise the frequency of these visits? Internet-based video calls (like Skype) can help make family feel close, but can’t substitute for being there. High-quality video-conferencing is on the brink of offering the quality needed for socialising, but is still expensive. Can you visit less frequently, but stay longer when you are there?
In the longer term, we need to look at why these situations emerge. In many cases there are inescapable reasons for emigration. In others, the likelihood that in future flying will become far more expensive and less socially acceptable than it is now, will give pause for thought before moving to the other side of the world, whilst leaving loved ones back at home. Taking the pledge is a powerful and simple way to send this message in a positive way, and prompt other family members to think about the implications of an emigration that they are planning.
Topics: FAQ Pledging Not to Fly |
October 17th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
I am currently grappling with this dilema, having fallen in love with a Brit living in Britain, and wanting to return back to Australia where my family and my passion for the environment is.
Thanks raising this issue so sensitively, yet frankly.