posted by Travel Cat on Dec 18
It seems as though we are the cause of the Earths demise if we fly off for 2 weeks in the sun these days!
I can read about all the evidence for global warming and the CO2 that causes it, and I know that flying is supposed to be one of the main ways that CO2 is leaking into the atmosphere, but should we stop flying because of it?
It seemed ‘ok’ a few years ago to buy carbon credits in exchange for your flight to ‘equal out’ the effect of pollution on the atmosphere and everyone was talking about it - but now it seems that that isn’t good enough anymore - it’s just a way to pay to pollute.
So, what can we do?
Stay At Home:
First choice is to stay at home for your vacation - a stay-cation, apparently. You can find plenty of ways to enjoy time off work near to where you live - for example, camping.
Plenty of people are taking up this option with the rise in living costs and world’s current financial situation, and they are really enjoying it. Local places are also seeing the benefits of these types of vacation.
Your local woods, parks, centres and communities are getting money and support from your visits which is helping to improve your own back yard, rather than just line the pockets of the big tour operators.
Take Less Vacations:
Why do you need to fly long-haul several times a year? Why not have one sun-drenched vacation across the globe, but take your other breaks closer to home - visiting family for example.
Or, make that vacation longer, so it’s still only the one flight, but it’s for 3 or 4 weeks - or even 6 months in the case of a gap year!
It would be much better to spend the equivalent of your next 10 vacations in the same place than to fly back and forth every 6 months or so - and you will get so much more from the experience!
Travel Differently:
We can still visit far flung destinations if we choose to travel by boat, train, bus or on foot! If we plan a route to where we want to go by means other than flying, we are reducing the amount of carbon we chug out into the air.
We can still visit a variety of great destinations, just with less of an impact on the environment. I know catching a train to South America or to the other side of Europe will still throw out CO2, but it will be less per person than flying.
However, no matter how much you want to, this won’t always be possible for shorter breaks as buses and trains take a lot longer to get to some places than flying. It isn’t always suitable.
Or:
Worry about reducing your impact in some other way and carry on flying on your vacations!
There are plenty of other things that you do that are (apparently) responsible for climate change, like buying excessive consumer goods, using products that cause deforestation, dropping litter, using coal, driving your car to work alone rather than sharing, voting for non-green political parties, eat too much foreign meat, use wildlife products, and many many more.
Make your choices, and stick to them!
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