A belated Happy New Year to you all. Apologies for recent lack of content on Mountain Journal. I’m off on an adventure, and very distracted by big mountains and deep snow in the Central Rockies.
If you have a suitable story for MJ please send it through and I’ll post: cam.walker@foe.org.au
Normal programing will resume in early FEB. In the meantime, hope you’re having a great summer.
[PIC: heading towards Crystal Peak, 10 Mile Range, Colorado]
Mountain Journal 
January 14, 2019 at 8:54 pm
I’m very fine with hard working environmentalists taking a break, but flying?
I try really, really hard not to be judgemental.
Last time I flew I did visit the Rockies because my brother was living in Calgary at the time. We drove and trained it from California to there.
All I saw in that amazing mountain range was road widening (forest cutdown), overdeveloped tourist resorts, pine beetle infested trees, wild fire burnt alpine forests and gated parks for approved community residents.
Ok there were a few free street book libraries and some community gardens that I tended to take copious photos of.
Snow possibly hides a lot of the damage at this time of the year.
IAll my in-laws live in the UK, my son lives in San Francisco, I live in Ballarat, Vic, Australia.
I’ve flown overseas 3 times since the year 2000. People used to migrate and never see family members again. At least now we have FaceTime.
They don’t share my disgust of aviation fuel anyway, so I physically touch them occasionally.
I will fly again for a very extended visit to my elderly mother in law when my husband has a year sabbatical next year.
I won’t be flying for a break from the hard graft of climate activism like so many paid campaigners do. I won”t be flying for my perceived human right to follow a passion. I’ll be flying to keep a long stNding relationship alive on a dying earth.
[from Cam. Yes, thats totally fair enough, although I don’t know if the climate differentiates between someone flying for their passion and someone flying for a relationship. I like your idea of taking a long trip if you do fly (which is the compromise with this trip, stay as long as I can and aim to minimise other work/ life flights for next few years). I’d been agonising about taking this trip for a long time and there is no doubt we need to fly a lot less. If people are interested, there is a good piece about a climate scientist who has stopped flying and the climate impacts of flying available here:
https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/life-after-oil/how-far-can-we-get-without-flying-20160211