How to travel green :) ?

Question

How can we travel green, since many of us can't, and many won't, just stay at the same place forever?

Thank you for your answer! :) Have a wonderful day

It's not realistic to expect that everybody will simply stop traveling. People NEED to travel, for different reasons.

What we must do is find the best ways of doing this without damaging the environment, or reducing and fixing the damages, as much as possible.

Answer 1

Bikes are the best! (effective, fun, cheap, healthy, reliable, and with little or no pollution - I gave up my car 7 years ago and I don't miss it at all)

Human power rules! - I like my rowboat too - I rowed it 1200 kms to the arctic! - man that was fun! And I can put my bike in my boat and be fully amphibious too.

Answer 2

On any given day, most of us do some sort of travel that involves choices, some greener, some not. Whether commuting to work or to school, the greener travel choice would be to walk, bike, take public transportation or carpool. If our work takes us to another city, and we have the option, the bus or train is greener than a plane or car.

But travel is also a chance to wander off the beaten track, explore, have fun, get away from work and take a break from routines. What then? Is there any way to lighten up one's impact on a road trip or trek that takes you cross country or continents? The staff of the Green Guide has asked themselves this, and came up with a few simple ways to get started:
1. Eat local and organic instead of fast food. See localharvest.org for a list of farmer's markets, farms and locally stocked restaurants.
2. Bring your own utensils, dishes and food containers for picnicking along the way.
3. Rent a hybrid or biodiesel-fueled car, which a number of car rental companies, such as Hertz, are making available. No matter what you drive, for maximum gas mileage, keep your tires properly inflated.
4. Take no car at all. See railstotrails.org and "Car-Free Getaways" at thegreenguide.com for some wonderful treks without cars.
5. If your plans do include planes, offset your CO2 emissions by funding new renewable-energy projects at terrapass.com or nativeenergy.com.
6. Camp out at a local, state or federal part. Reserve space ahead via recreation.gov and reserveamerica.com.
7. Choose a greener hotel.
8. Minimize your battery use with LED roadside flares, rechargeable batteries, a solar-powered charger for PDAs/cell phones/car batteries and a hand-cranked LED flashlight.
9. Use sunscreens and insect repellents that don't contain harmful chemicals.

So lighten up, take a hike, hit the trail, travel green and have some fun.

Answer 3

Hi,

You're right -- traveling is a fact of life. And when you travel, odds are you'll have some sort of negative impact on the environment.

Fortunately, there is an entire industry dedicated to helping people "travel green." They arrange eco-friendly vacations, advise you on how to buy low emission cars, recommend "green" hotels, etc.

Green Seal is a nonprofit site that "certifies" businesses, services, and products as "green." I've included the link below as it might be helpful while planning a trip.

EcoTourism.org and SustainableTravel.com may also be of some use. From what I can tell, they don't specialize in helping business travelers "tread lightly" but they do help families and individuals with eco-friendly vacations.

I hope these are of some use.

thanks,

Mike

Answer 4

The once a year vacation is not the problem. The problem is day to day living that puts the planet in jeopardy. All those plastic bags, all those disposable diapers, all that fuel that each person uses in each car every day go to and from a job in an inefficient high rise building.

Add to that the problem with the oil companies keeping the price of fuel just below the range that would make alternative fuels sources realistic to use. and the government not giving fuel wise incentives to corporations to be green. That is what is going to make a difference... not your trip to Yosemite by bus.

Answer 5

These days you can buy "carbon credits" (tree plantings) to cover any transport use, from car to 'plane. Many feel they can't afford them, on top of the fare etc. I'd say they can't afford to travel. Ruthless? Perhaps. But if you follow it through, and "ordinary" people got engaged with the issues, it could lead to a fairer world - and keep it. As neither of us can ride a bike, or walk far, any more, we simply minimize our travel even to the shops, and live with that. Internet, TV, telephone, books - most of which nobody had only a few years ago - substitutes.

Answer 6

I don't want to mention any specific company by name. But you can buy carbon offsets to supposedly balance the amount of carbon your travel produces. The idea is you subsidize wind, solar, or hydro so that it can sell it's power at the market price. When this happens that power displaces power generation that would have used fossil fuels, most likely coal.

Carbon offsets are highly controversial, some calling it a real solution for individuals given the state of the energy market, others calling it feel good greenwashing. I can see merit in both sides, but I figured the topic was worth mentioning.

Answer 7

If you're driving, ideally you can use an electric hybrid which uses significantly less gas. If you can only use a gas-fueled car, figure out where the optimum RPM is (for my 4-cylinder, for example, under 3000 RPMs uses the least amount of fuel), and don't accelerate faster than that. Roll down your windows to cool your car when you can, and avoid the use of auxiliary toys that suck up more battery power. Obviously, don't throw trash out the window.

I don't know of a whole lot you can do when flying or traveling by boat, unless you buy carbon offsets as others have suggested.

Answer 8

To put forward a general rule,
"Lower and slower" uses less fuel;
It depends on how many people there are
In each and every truck and car.
Miles per seat is really neat,
Though not as good as using your feet.
Five seats in a car, 500 in a plane,
One on a motorbike, 1500 on a train.
Of those four can you guess
For mileage per seat which is the best?
Doing the math might give you a pain,
So here's the answer: "It's the TRAIN!"

(a 5 seat car gets about the same miles per gallon per seat as a 550 seat 747 ... IF THEY ARE BOTH FILLED TO CAPACITY! The average number of people per car is not 5, it's 1.2. A passenger train gets about 5X the fuel mileage per seat than a car or plane ... IF FULL!!!!!!)

Answer 9

Local bus service in other countries is pretty good, train is good too. Biking and walking if your body will allow it. When I was a frisky youth, I laughed at bus tours, I would take one now in a minute. Don't stay home just live lightly on the earth wherever you go. Lots of wonders to be seen out there and beyond. Bien Viaje

Answer 10

That question opens a real can of worms because in the strict since, vacation or other leisure travel is by definition unnecessary. (Thats obviously not applicable to reloation travel.) But I know I'm would resent having to "do my part" and carpool or spend an extra 2 hours taking the bus to work when someone else is "doing his part" by cutting off one day of a cross country trip to Disney World.

Answer 11

There is a heirachy. Others might disagree, but I would put it in this order

1 Stay at Home -the best option
2 Walk
3 Cycle
4 Train
5 ......... including every method of transport

and so on until you get :

to Fly which is worst.

Fantastic Question. Well Done Again Moon.