Green Travel and Plane Carbon Offsets
Wednesday April 23, 2008
Earth Day was April 22nd, and I must say I didn't do anything differently than normal, despite having read Larry West's "How One Person Can Change the World" -- I guess I tend to hope that my household's everyday general life offsets some of the things I do (like flying) that may be less than perfect: I've recycled forever; I've been a longtime (at times tireless) bicycle/public transportation community advocate; I live in a solar-heated adobe house (and have designed an Earthship for my future almost-off-the-grid home, which I hope to place on my organic farm); I drink from the tap... blah blah. (Amazing how quickly I can fall into self-justification when feeling potentially defensive.)
On the guilty side: when in developing countries and truly too beat to face walking even two more blocks, I take exhaust-spewing buses that probably, with one short trip, offset every plastic water bottle I've ever recycled in my life (though the devil on my shoulder always says, "That bus was traveling anyway...."); I do drive around North America, often in an old VW bus (and I do hope to buy a used hybrid vehicle this summer). And I do fly in planes. Quite a bit.
Which brings us to green travel. I've felt guilty for ages about flying around at some cost to the planet. (Here I go, associating green and guilt again. In fact, I also sometimes feel sorta guilty for promoting travel to relatively less-invaded spots on the globe, 
but I can quickly justify that: backpackers and independent travelers must leave a smaller footprint, even if only out of economic necessity, than mainstream travelers. Backpack travelers walk and use public transportation a lot, seldom renting cars; we usually eat very locally -- like from produce markets and street stands -- thus supporting local grassroots/farm economies [I've learned that's being a "locavore"]; we hoard soap slivers rather than use shampoo in hotels' complimentary plastic bottles since we often stay in hostels -- which are energy-savers in their own right, with dorm rooms sleeping ten often being lit by one bare light bulb... okay, okay.)
As a frequent flyer, I've been wondering about the concept of buying carbon offsets on airplane flights for some time, and today noted a Google alert for Iva Skoch's "Can you buy your way out of hell with carbon offset fees?" with interest. (I loved the first sentence of her piece: "Carbon offset fees work like penance in the Roman Catholic Church.") Her Gadling blog post referred me to About.com's own Arlene Fleming, who details what which US airlines do with one's carbon offset fees, which are voluntary contributions made in hopes of beginning to offset the environmental damage one human does by being a passenger on a plane. (According to SELF [Solar Electricity in the Developing World]: "A carbon offset is an initiative which neutralizes the impact of a carbon emission.")
Arlene's also got the scoop on which US airlines have plans for carbon neutral programs; as well, you might find West's "European Union Tells US Airlines to Go Green or Get Lost" interesting. Globally, check out a blog post stating that "...only 24 out of 374 world wide airlines offer a carbon off-set policy" (via Gadling).
What do you think? My conclusion on the question of whether or not to pay an airline's carbon offset fee is basically the same as Skoch's: why not?
More Green Travel In the interest of learning more about just how green (or not) I may be as a traveler and how much greener I can get with some more effort, I've started following Go Green Travel Green's blog, where Earth Day provided impetus for the launch of a cool series, "25 Days to Green Travel." I took the UK Guardian's Green Traveler Quiz, where I was stunned to learn that I'm an "eco warrior," and interested to note that the answers most naturally appealing to independent travelers were the "right" ones for green travelers. I used The Nature Conservancy's carbon footprint calculator to learn that my estimated greenhouse gas emissions are below the US average and hugely above the global average (it was the driving-around-North-America thing).
As for "green" travel outfits, tours and possibilities -- boy, that's a can of possibly-not-organic worms, isn't it? We're all beginning to see travel stuff claiming green-ness, like tours that I would want to research to the nth degree before taking, or really not-green things claiming some green connection -- swimming with dolphins in ecological preserves leaps to mind. (In fact, I'm reminded of voluntourism dilemmas wherein I, for one, always wonder if a given tour/volunteer travel company is merely cashing in on a popular leaning and pocketing profits dispassionately, or really doing its part somewhere... the pragmatist in me wants to say, "Show me the balance sheet!".) For now, I'm planning to keep doing what I do, which is conserve and re-use when possible while being constantly nagged by guilt that I could be doing more, and follow the research of folks like those at Treehugger, Planeta, Go Green Travel Green, and The Nature Conservancy.
Further interesting reading:
but I can quickly justify that: backpackers and independent travelers must leave a smaller footprint, even if only out of economic necessity, than mainstream travelers. Backpack travelers walk and use public transportation a lot, seldom renting cars; we usually eat very locally -- like from produce markets and street stands -- thus supporting local grassroots/farm economies [I've learned that's being a "locavore"]; we hoard soap slivers rather than use shampoo in hotels' complimentary plastic bottles since we often stay in hostels -- which are energy-savers in their own right, with dorm rooms sleeping ten often being lit by one bare light bulb... okay, okay.)
As a frequent flyer, I've been wondering about the concept of buying carbon offsets on airplane flights for some time, and today noted a Google alert for Iva Skoch's "Can you buy your way out of hell with carbon offset fees?" with interest. (I loved the first sentence of her piece: "Carbon offset fees work like penance in the Roman Catholic Church.") Her Gadling blog post referred me to About.com's own Arlene Fleming, who details what which US airlines do with one's carbon offset fees, which are voluntary contributions made in hopes of beginning to offset the environmental damage one human does by being a passenger on a plane. (According to SELF [Solar Electricity in the Developing World]: "A carbon offset is an initiative which neutralizes the impact of a carbon emission.")
Arlene's also got the scoop on which US airlines have plans for carbon neutral programs; as well, you might find West's "European Union Tells US Airlines to Go Green or Get Lost" interesting. Globally, check out a blog post stating that "...only 24 out of 374 world wide airlines offer a carbon off-set policy" (via Gadling).
What do you think? My conclusion on the question of whether or not to pay an airline's carbon offset fee is basically the same as Skoch's: why not?
More Green Travel In the interest of learning more about just how green (or not) I may be as a traveler and how much greener I can get with some more effort, I've started following Go Green Travel Green's blog, where Earth Day provided impetus for the launch of a cool series, "25 Days to Green Travel." I took the UK Guardian's Green Traveler Quiz, where I was stunned to learn that I'm an "eco warrior," and interested to note that the answers most naturally appealing to independent travelers were the "right" ones for green travelers. I used The Nature Conservancy's carbon footprint calculator to learn that my estimated greenhouse gas emissions are below the US average and hugely above the global average (it was the driving-around-North-America thing).
As for "green" travel outfits, tours and possibilities -- boy, that's a can of possibly-not-organic worms, isn't it? We're all beginning to see travel stuff claiming green-ness, like tours that I would want to research to the nth degree before taking, or really not-green things claiming some green connection -- swimming with dolphins in ecological preserves leaps to mind. (In fact, I'm reminded of voluntourism dilemmas wherein I, for one, always wonder if a given tour/volunteer travel company is merely cashing in on a popular leaning and pocketing profits dispassionately, or really doing its part somewhere... the pragmatist in me wants to say, "Show me the balance sheet!".) For now, I'm planning to keep doing what I do, which is conserve and re-use when possible while being constantly nagged by guilt that I could be doing more, and follow the research of folks like those at Treehugger, Planeta, Go Green Travel Green, and The Nature Conservancy.
Further interesting reading:- About.com: "Air Travel and the Environment - Climate Crisis, Climate Change and Carbon Taxes"
- UK Times Online: "Blaming carbon on planes ‘is flight of fancy’"
- Go Green Travel Green's recommendation: Best Green Blogs
- Larry West: About Environmental Issues
Comments
I just tried another carbon calculator from an organization called 3Degrees. They actually have some tips on ways to reduce the impact of airplane travel, which I thought was cool. You can also use this calculator to support clean energy projects.
Our company is building carbon offsets into all of our motor coach tours this year. Travel with our company by coach is carbon neutral. To my knowledge we are the first company of its kind to do this! It’s something travel companies will have to start doing anyway within the next several years I think.