We all have been travelling far and wide. On one hand traveling makes all of us richer and better person as it exposes us to new cultures and experiences, on the other hand the downside is that doing that we affect our planet's health. One of the main reason is also the increasing in popularity of low cost carriers such as Ryanair, EasyJet and so on.
Even if many efforts and progress have been made in reducing cars and land transports emissions, a new enemy is arising: planes ad ships.
Recently, many researches have tried to estimate the amount of CO2 consumed by different way of transportation. An independent study based on European Commission data, has found out that the increase in emissions from shipping and aviation will cover almost half of the emission reduction expected by the rest of transport in Europe. To give you an idea, the contribution of the maritime transport due to the EU demand for liquid fossil fuels increases consistently over the years, going from 11% in 2010 to 14% in 2030. The aviation one rises from 13% in 2010 to 16% in 2030. Some Governments are considering to double flying taxes, especially the short ones. Germany and France are leading the promotion of this policy change. In July, France introduced taxes up to 18 euros on flights from France. Germany, on the same line, is planning to double the taxes for national flights, aiming to boost the use of trains which are much less polluting compared to airplanes and in short distances the time required to get to the destination is almost the same.
Some interesting facts about traveling by plane are:
By 2020, airlines will produce 70% more CO2 compared to the 2005 levels
Global output is set to increase by a minimum 300% through 2050
Someone flying London-New York and back produces the same amount of emissions as a person heating its home for one year
All of this said, I think that everyone should be traveling without any restriction. However, our Planet has already many issues and polluting by traveling would just make our situation worst. Recently, Greta Thunberg started traveling by sailing boat. I reckon this is not feasible for a large majority of people, however there is something we can do to make our traveling more eco-friendly and lower its impact: cleaning the place we travel to. For instance, collecting as much as a small bag of garbage each day would reduce the impact that our flight had on the environment. It would be awesome if this would become a common practice, at the end of the day it doesn't take a lot of effort.
Care and share!!
Live pono!
Image credit: pixabay
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