The Question is how to best fight your CO2 emissions.
Hey fellow travelers!
I am having a very bad conscience as I have flown on my current trip as much as never before. That's why I had an idea for a viral campaign that could a least counterbalance some of my CO2 emissions. You can participate by simply watching this video, it's as easy as that. And, if you want to do more for the climate you simply share it or make your own and past it as a video response!
I hope you like it!
DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER GOOD IDEAS TO FIGHT CO2 EMISSIONS?
[Edited: 2013 Mar 20 22:43 - Ali:1 - embed video]
Reply to this Thanks for the video. I thought it was a creative way to get people involved in mitigating the effects of global warming without much of an effort. I also feel responsible for the CO2 emissions I'm creating every time I fly somewhere...but I don't want to sacrifice traveling! While carpooling doesn't decrease CO2 emissions, it can prevent a greater carbon footprint and be a cheaper means of travel than trains or plains. I know that at least in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Spain and Great Britain there's a cool travelers carpooling website called www.covoiturage.com. I'm interested to see what other ideas travelers can bring to this forum!
Best,
Tess Malijeonvsky
Writer for Wanderled
Reply to this Honestly, and this is a very honest answer..nothing. I lecture engineering, environmental and sustainability subjects, i lecture about natural hazards and in that I include climate..and I would love to say I tick the box and pay carbon offsets (I live in an economy with a mining boom and a mining tax) but I dont. Why? I understand the scale of the problem. Yes, I know one person can make a difference, yes the ideology still burns strong tho i may be a little jaded as we all get jetskis and live a good but expensive lifestyle thanks to mining...the real guts of the answer is cleaner methods of production. That comes with advances in technology and time..time for the oil junkies to retire and their jobs be taken over by the bright young enquiring mind that wants to challenge boundaries. Asking billions of people to change the way they live is not ever going to happen easily or quickly. Children, 30 years from now maybe they will be entering Unis and discovering amazing stuff that people will accept that meets the huge energy demands of the earths population..I still travel. Fair distances at times. And pretty regularly. I guess I am in a way contributing because i encourage my students to look to the future...
Oil is big business...then again, so is climate change. I keep an open mind. Oh and I hitched on Bora Bora..thats gotta count for something!
Reply to this Greetings Algiox and welcome to TravelBlog 😊
With all due respect to you and your feelings towards 'Global Warming', this particular question is something that I think about for a second and then rapidly dismiss. Several years ago, I read a very interesting article about how after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, left wing fanatics who had been left without a cause, went on to adopt militant environmentalism and have been promoting its cause ever since.
Of course, I am environmentally aware and will always act responsibly when it comes to non sustainable produce. I do take my recycling duties seriously too, but when it comes to the to-and-fro about so called 'Global Warming' I have yet to see any definitive evidence that the Earth is warming up as quickly as the so called 'experts' say it is.
It also seems that those who shout the loudest, always seem to have some kind of vested interest in 'green power' (usually financial) and that is why I find it very difficult to take these people seriously.
Taxing people to death isn't going to change or achieve anything either and all it succeeds in doing is cultivating an ever increasing contempt for the burgeoning demands that are being made on the tax payer. The Earth has gone through periods of warming and cooling for millennia and will continue to do so. So, I remain steadfast in my quest to stomp around the globe in my carbon jackboots, without a care in the world 😊
[Edited: 2013 Mar 01 15:14 - Cockle:46288 ]
Reply to this There is a great documentary called Global Dimming - not warming - gives you another view of the climate patterns..our air travel is actually contributing to keeping global warming at bay.....which isnt an entirely good thing but there is another side to the story.
Reply to this Aren't those who makes the most money in all that issue those same people who "help" us to trade those "CO2 credits". I still have to find a convincing argument there....and I know few people in the trade.
There is a very easy solution...oil is...as was coal in the 60', a limited supply. Once the "global crisis" will be over, the barril will reach over 200usd...and than, more alternative energies will become "economically efficient"....
The solution to a greener world is not less consumption....it's a barril at over 200usd...or more....because than...and only than people start to feel it and go for alternative sources or solutions...
And let's not forget why the food crisis happened in 2007-2008...when we start to produce more ethanol...we produce less food to eat...and that food is consumed by people...not by cars!
Reply to this Love the video Alex -- really funny, and I think awareness is a huge part of it. I wish you a lot of luck with the campaign.
Then I agree with Cindy, Nick and Peter's responses... the problem is on such a scale and complexity that this is beyond the capabilities of an individual to make a meaningful difference, or 100 individuals or a million.
Maybe a billion of us all renouncing our consumerist societies would have an impact... would the other 6 billion just increase theirs to compensate?
The kind of thing that gets me annoyed only slightly more than multimillionaire Al Gore jetting around the world saving the environment, is when we're all expected to sit in darkness for an hour during earth day only to see that the moment the hour is up every skyscraper in the city is lit up like a christmas tree thus negating any possible benefit the hour had.
The optimistic side of me thinks there will be a complete paradigm shift, the move to a hydrogen economy or massive advances in solar power efficiency and battery storage. It needs to happen soon and there are lots of promising studies and developments one is sure to start becoming mainstream soon and be adopted fast.
Or then again maybe it's something as simple as eating kangaroo rather than beef -- kangaroo farts do not contain methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. There we go... solved it 😉
<added> -- except I don't agree with Nick on the evidence - it's happening Nick!
[Edited: 2013 Mar 20 23:17 - Ali:1 ]
Reply to this Great video, Alex--good luck with your project! I've always been an optimist, so I believe every bit helps--starting with me. I flew to Buenos Aires, feeling bad about that massive carbon footprint and decided to off-set it by returning to California only on public buses and boats--hopefully lots of traveling and no flying for five years. And I loved those carpooling systems in Europe--great if they were everywhere!
I've always strongly believed in cutting consumption (see the great youtube video on The Story of Stuff), so I buy most things second hand or try to trade. I also have more money for travel that way. I've been traveling in countries where I can't drink the water, so I use a UV water purifier or boil water rather than buying it in plastic. Cutting down or eliminating meat is healthy for our bodies and the planet.
If everyone took responsibility for the planet, I think we could make a difference.
Reply to this 
