Thursday, April 11, 2019

Mitigating Deep Impacts



As I prepare to head off traveling for pleasure, research has been at the forefront of my effort to ensure timely flights, lodging and activities. Focused on upcoming adventures its rather easy for me to ignore the implicit impact of my trip on the environment. Sadly, the foundational credo of contemporary consumerism is to consume without considering these factors.

Importantly, we live in an age where climate change is in the process of steamrolling our planet. The global effort underway to counteract that planet changing force is minimal at best, and every creature and ecosystem (and future generations thereof) on the planet will suffer the consequences. But what can I do?

The most effective thing one can do is reduce ones environmental footprint where possible, both in everyday life and in on adventures beyond! Minimizing fossil fuel use, biking and walking when possible, eating more sustainably, choosing solar and wind power, and in general consuming less of the industrial world's output is a good place to start. In aggregate, the human population putting this reductions in effect can make a major difference.

Still, we all want to pursue rewarding activities to have a fulfilling life, which at times requires using imperfect resources. Still, we can optimize the ethicality of our choices with a little additional effort and a charitable mindset. To start with one can plan low impact eco-travel like backpacking, or taking trips close to home which require low resource use. Getting away from the ones daily routine need not be a jet-setting itinerary.

If we do choose to fly to exotic places, we can consider financially offsetting the additional impact. To that ends there are many carbon footprint calculators out there. Here is one by Conservation International I found straightforward which I used to estimate my annual impact at about 18 tons of CO2. Surprisingly, my annual flight impact is a significant percentage of that total.

One would hope responsible airlines would be required to include carbon offsets in their ticket price; alas, in the current free market it is voluntary and thus rare. Perhaps, that will change, at least one can take responsibility into ones own hands buy purchasing an offset from a certified program such as these. These programs support projects (with verification) that counter climate changing behavior by preserving oxygen producing forests, reducing developing world fossil fuel use, and the like.

For me, my annual impact can be offset for a couple hundred dollars, about twenty dollars for my flight itineraries. Indeed, this is not a painless action for me or anyone who maintains a lean budget. It can feel like you're burning money when this is entirely voluntary. On the other hand, if you consider your offsets as part of your annual charitable donation toward an under-served cause, these contributions become part of anticipated and responsible travel expenses.

In a better regulated marketplace the cost of maintaining a sustainable global environment would be included in the costs of products and activities in which we participate. Perhaps one day national and international leadership will incorporate those policy changes; in the meantime, making carbon offset purchases on our own in our travel as we are able is one step down the honorable path in environmental conservation.