How to travel responsibly: 9 ethical and climate-related challenges facing those who want to tread lightly
- Which carbon claims can you trust? Is cruising really that bad? How about Airbnb? Today’s responsible traveller needs to consider such questions
- Holly Tuppen’s new book, ‘Sustainable Travel’, examines these areas and many other topics of concern
Long before Covid-19 brought global travel to a screeching halt, the problems associated with large numbers of people moving around the planet were becoming obvious.
Published last month, Sustainable Travel: The Essential Guide to Positive-Impact Adventures (White Lion Publishing), by Holly Tuppen, is a guide written for travellers wishing to minimise the harm they do as they negotiate the world’s ethical and climate-related challenges. Below are a few of the concerns that are addressed within its pages.
1. Which carbon claims can I trust?
The rising concern about the climate crisis has created a wave of claims, from carbon-neutral around-the-world trips to carbon-positive hotels. One minute Hawaii is announcing plans to become a carbon-neutral state, and the next Swedish burger joint Max Burger serves up the world’s first climate-positive burger.
Deciphering what all this means, which claims stand up and which are greenwashing, can be a challenge. “Carbon-neutral” refers to an activity or product that releases net-zero carbon emissions into the atmosphere. “Climate-positive”, meanwhile, goes beyond this to create environmental benefit by removing additional carbon from the atmosphere. Each of these terms and claims needs scrutiny.
If a trip, hotel or airline has achieved carbon neutrality purely through offsetting its emissions, it’s not addressing the real issue. Reducing absolute carbon emissions (by changing things like habits, transport methods, food and goods) should come first.
2. Is Instagram a worthy guide?
Horseshoe Bend is a dramatic U-shaped meander in the Colorado River, through the quiet, sandstone landscape of Arizona. For years, the view had been enjoyed mainly by locals. But two years after Instagram launched, visitor numbers rose from a few thousand before 2010 to over 1 million in 2018.
