I gave a talk in London last night.In the Q&A afterwards, a woman in the audience took me to task for traveling too much. She seemed to be worried about my carbon footprint and my tight schedule. I was taken aback. For a start my schedule is pretty relaxed: I don’t overschedule my trips and I take time-off when I come home. I take planes but not that often. I’m flying to Argentina today but haven’t flown anywhere since June. I’ll be flying to the US in October but that’s it till 2008. In case you are wondering, I don’t attend every event listed on the Upcoming Events page. And as a family we never fly anywhere for holidays: we take all our vacation here in the UK, camping or staying in cottages. Anyway, the question got me thinking. Is it wrong for me to get on a plane to fly the Slow flag overseas? Or is some air travel okay? And if so, how much? Any thoughts and suggestions welcome

I’m in Buenos Aires at the moment. It’s amazing how the Slow philosophy strikes such a powerful chord here. I have a theory. Well, actually, I have several theories but here’s the one on my mind at the moment. Like others in the developing world, the Argentines feel that drive to catch up with the West as fast as possible, perhaps without even asking whether everything we have is really worth striving for. But Buenos Aires is also a very cultured city, a place where people read books and talk about ideas, which means they are more open to cultural shifts like the Slow philosophy than are other places. Result: a fascinating paradox and an ardent desire to make sense of it all. Just a thought.