The toughest thing about business travel is the time away from my daughter. On average, I spend three months of the year out of the office. I’ve been doing this since she was born and she’s now four. My time away makes me acutely aware of all the rapid changes she undergoes as she matures from a baby to a toddler. For the first few years, the changes were notably physical like being a bit taller or 
having a thicker mop of hair. In the past six months the changes have become more conceptual. Currently, she’s fascinated with arranging her collection of chestnuts or acorns according to either their likenesses, dissimilarities or what ever fancies her at that moment. Each time I come home the best moment is discovering her differences. But good things fade and my excitement dims as we inevitably return to the all familiar toddler whining of "Why? Why? But I wanna, but I need it". Nonetheless, it’s all painfully good and for sure the next time I’m traveling I’ll be missing her.
Right now, I’m sitting on an Airbus heading for Hong Kong. It’s a four turbine engine emitting 2.4 tons of carbon per passenger (return fare). The flight one way takes about 14 hours flying at an altitude of 10,500 meters over a distance of 10,000 KLMs. If you add up all the discharges of my flights, and my direct carbon emissions (car, heating) and indirect (supply chain discharges to produce and ship my food, clothes and etc.,), my household generates about 40 tons of carbon per annum (the average American home produces 55 tons).
According to the UN, this is almost six times more carbon than the average household in Africa, Asia and South America. Wow, If this is true, we ought to ask why we are so hot and bothered by the environmental practices of China or any of it’s non democratic peers? After all, we North Americans reportedly cause way more global warming than anyone else.
But the developing world is catching up. Not in the next few months but within the decades to come. They aspire for our middle class lifestyle. They want comfortable homes with cars, flat screen TVs and stylish furnishings. They want predictable food supplies, basic health care and proper schools. They want good jobs. In effect, they want the security, opportunity and leisure you and I have probably known for all our lives.
Unfortunately, what they want and what we have are no longer sustainable. The planet can’t absorb the environmental costs of North America’s households and lifestyles let alone the introduction of several hundred million Asian families mimicking our habits and estates. It can’t be done.
Everyone of us has an undeniable right to a safe home, good schooling, decent job and spare time to do nothing. Ironically, this very fundamental right is driving global warming and keeping Al Gore sleepless at night.
I’m impatient for my daughter to leave her "Why? Why? But I wanna, I need it" stage. She’s eternally adorable but nerve shattering at times. Unless, we find some new technologies or natural resources, the middle class lifestyle we all want will end up destroying our planet. Because I seriously doubt that anyone of us either in the Western World or in Asia will grow out of our collective phase of "Why? Why? But I wanna, I need it". Unlike long suffering parents who must always remain at their child’s side, our fragile planet has finally lost its patience with our demands. In due time the rage of its temper will literally be visited on our shores and skies.
To understand this google GEO4 (UN Global Environmental Outlook 4) and to change this madness check out David Suzuki. We can do it!
