Was just thinking about all my planned trips this year around the world, well mostly around Europe, but with one trip to China also planned. Was thinking about the trips with a big smile as feeling all happy about all the places I'll visit, the time I'll get to spend with family and so on. And then suddenly it kind of hit me that with all these flights I'm really not helping the environment :(
So how do you make the two ends meet? How do I continue to dream about travelling the world without destroying too much of it? How do I continue to work in a country other than the 2 where different parts of my family lives without going back all the time and hence being bad for the environment? How do I work in an organisation which is trying to make the world a safer and better place, but where half the staff travel 40% of the time?... So far I have some excuses - like the fact that at least Geneva is in between Sweden and Slovenia so I don't have to travel that far each time, and would still need to travel between the 2 countries to see both my parents... And some small solutions like paying the extra fee for environmental tax on my last flight ticket (only cost about 5 CHF for my flight Geneva-Stockholm-Geneva and made me feel a bit better), take the train to Paris in September, when I'm then flying to Beijing from there... And this year, I only flew once for work - better than all the years before although not by my own choice. And I almost always walk to work, or go by rollerblades. Sometimes I do take the bus, and sometimes I go with N's car or scooter, but most of the time I walk. However, one flight seems to cancel all the other effort. And this year might be one of the worst for my personal flights so far. Judge yourselves and let me know if you have any good tips for how to allow for both travelling and living environmentally friendly?
This year in numbers of flights:
2 flights Geneva - Stockholm and back
1 flight Geneva - Lisbon and back
2 flights Geneva - Barcelona and back
1 flight Paris - Beijing and back
1 flight Geneva - Belgrade and back (for work)
???
1 comment:
I've the same dilemma some times, but I believe that the effort I make not to use the car in the daily life; the effort not to consume superfluous things compensates in a certain way the airplane trips I do. Concerning the CO2 compensation scheme, I see it as a way to airlines to feel a bit less guilty, but does not solve in any way the problem. I consider they should be the first, and by option, to compensate the environment by the pollution they provoke. Even if that would imply the trip to be more expensive.
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