152 - my gamble

Another number people (at least those in my income bracket) should know. 152 is the amount of kilometers each person should be able to travel by air in order to live off one planet. In other words, if you are travelling more than 152km by plane each year, you are living unsustainably.

This explains some of the pressure I feel in my work. In my own way I believe I am working towards a more sustainable planet. My old polish landlord does not think so, and thinks I should be making money and providing jobs. That's for another day though. My job involves flying. A lot of flying. I travel by air on average once every two months (one trip, sometimes involving multiple flights). I would imagine I fly roulghly 70 000km a year. Wow, that figure scares me. Mainly because I think that's (one of) the baseline(s) for my work. I need to do "good", enough to compensate at least 69 848km worth of flying.

I campaign for ecological farming, and this is where things get tricky. It's hard to calculate the "good" I am doing in stopping the invasion of Africa by industrial agriculture. How much good does research do that shows ecological farming is a financialy better option for small-scale African farmers than chemical pesticides and fertilisers? That's a very hard calculation. I'd like to err on the side of caution though, and make sure this campaign does amazing things. I'd like African countries to be able to show the rest of the world how productive, profitable and good for the environment farming can be.

I feel like I'm gambling my own and the futures of some little people who are very close to me in this equation. Will I be able to take home bigger winnings for the planet than the debt I am putting it into with my air travel? That's something I think about often.