Green Travel – Making Better Environmental Travel Choices
Written on October 20, 2009 – 7:29 pm | by prempcc
We all hear the term "global warming" the whole time. In recent months I have started to travel stories, like the permanent ice cap of Mount Kilimanjaro is melting, as we read in the Alpine ski resorts go, be permanently closed due to lack of snow has fallen, as the glaciers melt in the Arctic, as always more frequent and severe weather disturbances are disturbances tourism, and so on go the stories. Some of these stories there is even exhorting us now go before some of these picturesquePlaces will be transformed or disappear forever. Climate change has become an issue for global travelers.
Travel, of course has consequences for the environment. Long-distance travel involves the creation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are pollutants, some of the strongest aircraft in existence today. Moreover, wherever we go, we consume food and other services, and we create waste. So do what?
As far as aircraft emissions are concerned, it isactually a few specific things we can do. There are ways to offset greenhouse gas emissions from air travel by purchasing trees to be planted, generated to compensate for these emissions. Trees for the future, your U.S. $ 40.00 actually pay for the planting of 400 trees, which will help offset greenhouse gases. You also get a global cooling certificate and sticker. On their website you will find a list of partners, including lodges and Bed and Breakfast, thepowered by renewable energy sources.
The Rainforest Alliance offers a variety of information on the actual eco-savvy travelers. They also offer a sustainable tourism certification for tourism enterprises based on methods to reduce the consumption of water, energy and other resources and the management, treatment and disposal of waste is improved. They even a toolkit for best practice in sustainable tourism for small and medium-sized businesses in the tourism industryIndustry.
On its website, the Rainforest Alliance is committed for a number of simple environmental practices that we can all try to follow:
• Support the local economy by seeking out locally owned hotels and catering establishments, locally grown food and locally made products and crafts.
• Green patronize hotels, whose managers are programs that save water and energy.
• Stay on trails. Clean up your own dirt and dispose of waste properly. Keep aRemoval of wild animals.
• Travel by public transport as much as possible.
• Avoid cars with two-stroke engines such as jet skis, scooters and a few boats that pollute enormous.
• culturally sensitive to local customs, greetings, dress code and eating habits.
• Treat others with the same respect one would wish, in your own community.
Other eco-certification programs for tour operators and tips for eco-savvy consumers are thefollowing websites:
– Terra Choice
– Green Globe 21
– Environmental Choice
– Green Seal
– The Global Ecolabelling Network
– The Climate Neutral Network
Another interesting site is Future Forests, talks in neutral for a "carbon" lifestyles in order to neutralize our impact on the environment. Future Forests have been proved, people with a variety of environmental gifts since 1997. You can dedicate a tree, for example, for $ 10.00. Youmay even be carbon-neutral plan weddings with Future Forests.
One nice thing about their site that they have a really cool carbon calculator, which you used to calculate your expected results or that can provide emissions. I thought, let's check this out, I entered some assumed data for a flight from New York to London, England.
At the moment I found out that this flight would produce 1.22 tonnes of CO2. The calculator also tells me when I have 2 trees that I can do paythis flight climate neutral. Alternatively, I could be up to 2 energy-saving bulbs to supply a small town in the Third World. Both options would be 30 €. I have also reviewed their carbon emissions driving machine. When I travel 400 km (250 miles) per week in a car with an engine capacity from 1.4 to 2 liters, I would generate about 4 tons of CO2 per year, which will take 5 trees to offset.
Apart from planting trees, you can also buy "carbon offsets". A "carbonOffset "is actually an investment in a project or action with the goal of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions. Offset projects come in many varieties and can plant trees or reforestation, building retrofits (ie installing more efficient heating and cooling systems count) or wind power projects.
According to the website of the Better World Club, which is the way it works: You can make a flight through Better World Travel Diary – Members receive a free and carbon balance for its U.S. domestic flight (11 U.S. dollarsValue.) If you book a flight via the Internet, another travel agent or the airline, they compensate for sending a tax-deductible donation to the CO2 emissions of your flight. ($ 11 for domestic flights or $ 22 for international flights.)
The good news is yes there are ways to offset the environmental impact, we all have, even when we travel.
Tags: Better, Choices, Environmental, Making, Travel