Rev. Fred Small works as a an activist, musician, and pastor and took the Flight Free pledge.
“It’s no longer enough to shrink our personal carbon footprint or to green our congregation. These are good things to do, but many of us have been doing them for decades, and the earth has only grown hotter. We’ve got to do more. To stop climate change we need national and state policies and international treaties to keep carbon in the ground and transition as rapidly as possible to safe, carbon-free renewable energy. Personal transformation, community transformation, institutional transformation, and political transformation go hand in hand. None can succeed without the rest.”
Why did you pledge Flight Free?
My moral responsibility to other human beings, other creatures, and generations to come.
What are your travel alternatives to flying?
Amtrak when possible. Otherwise bus. I haven't needed to drive long-distance for decades, fortunately. (I dream of returning to Europe when passage by ship is economical.)
This June 5-8 I'll be joining the Treaty People Gathering in northern Minnesota to protest Line 3. To get there I'll take Amtrak from Boston. The first leg will be by Amtrak-chartered bus to Albany (which I hope is a temporary circumstance of the pandemic), then a train to Chicago and another to train to Minneapolis-St. Paul, where I'll enjoy home hospitality and a carpool to Park Rapids, MN. The $306 roundtrip Amtrak fare is cheaper than flying. While the travel time is greater, of course--three days roundtrip--I think of it as a rolling retreat, perfect for reading, prayer, meditation, and rest. Most important, the irony of flying to an Indigenous-led protest of fossil-fuel pollution would be hard to swallow.
Photo by Morgan Brings Plenty
Read more about Rev. Fred Small’s work at https://www.revfredsmall.com/