Our Travelling and How it Affects the Planet

The world is a fantastic place and travelling around it is a delight. Exploring our planet and experiencing the beauty and natural wonders is necessary. However, are we destroying it in our attempt to be a part of it?

A Balancing Act

Creating a balance between our desire to explore the planet and to save the environment is not just something for the traveller to think about but also has a bearing on the places visited as well. Taking an example, we realise that the Galapagos are far from being the empty and isolated islands from the past. Rather there are now decent cities where at least 20,000 people reside, which quite simply are damaging the fragile ecosystem of this island. The 200,000 people arriving annually to visit only add more of a strain to this beautiful little place. This is common throughout the world – tourism takes precedence over conservation of the land.

The huge amount of money coming into Thailand, for example, has not been used to reduce pollution or put into cleaning the beaches but instead to extend them even further to accommodate more tourists destabilising the environment even more. A simple way to combat this is not to travel at all but such an unrealistic option is almost laughable.

Moreover, with governments relying heavily on tourism as a source of revenue, it’s certain that they will not try to alleviate the problem in any way. The solution lies solely with you – the consumer. How can you travel in a safer and more eco-friendly way?

Kill the Air Travel

A big contributor to this pollution is flying. The carbon footprint of air travel is seen as one of the biggest factors in climate change. Nevertheless, it is inevitable when travelling. After all, how else can we get from one side of the world to the other?

Commercial flying is also a huge contributor to global warming and with air ticket prices decreasing and ticket sales on the rise, it does not look to be something that will reduce any time soon. Airlines are therefore looking for options to cut the amount of carbon produced that include bio fuel and better streamlined and lighter planes. However, it is not considered as enough. Sadly, there does not appear to be a solution right now other than to tell people to stop travelling.

Ways to Help

Car travel is another huge contributor to environmental pollution. Many who choose to travel somewhere closer will often drive there. Something like this, however, is easier to address. People can use public transport or electric cars to travel, which reduces on carbon emission. When at a destination eat local food rather than imported items, which checks the need to continue the imports.

Recycle what you can, pick up trash, switch of unused lights, short of attaching solar panels to our roofs as these are some of the best options for a well-intentioned traveller and an improved piece of mind.