The equation has become inescapable. Endless flight into mass international travel inescapably equates with our having to flee from our own homes because of the fires. floods and droughts that increasingly ravage everyplace where we live. That, and because where we live can’t be insured anymore.
In the same way that greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) rise to devastate Earth’s atmosphere, the equation of tourism-induced peril indicates the rising burden.
Levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide, the three GGE released by human activity that are the most significant contributors to climate change, continued their historically high rates of growth in the atmosphere during 2022, according to NOAA scientists.
Tourism accounts for between 8 and 12% of GGE. Air travel dominates a frequent traveler’s individual toll on climate change. Airlines, chain hotels, online travel agents and rental car companies love frequent fliers, and especially those who fly long- distance. They stay away longer and spend more. We add up points.
Bucket-list travel?
Of Travel + Leisure’s “21 Life-changing Trips Everyone Should Experience at Least Once,” only 2 don’t require Americans to travel by air (to New York City and for a tour of national parks that surely calls for travel by car).
But are Morocco, Machu Picchu and Guyana more life-changing than what we can experience on our own accessible continent traveling by train, transit, bicycle, on foot across an immense network of recreational trails, across the most spectacular preserved lands, national seashores, heritage rivers, scenic byways and a unique system of national heritage areas?
Don’t we most need a game-changing relationship with where we live?
Emissions reduction is the most obvious way that we can challenge climate change. The same as with international travel, staying longer in regional America puts more money into local economies, especially benefiting those towns that welcome visitors to their singular adjacent sites.
Optimism about travel whether for leisure or for business
In North America, the gold standard nonprofit for travel and tourism as climate action is Nevada-based Ron Mader’s Planeta.com. About local he says:
“A beautiful view is no longer enough. Locals and visitors are more engaged when stories are shared. Locals provide context, they share the knowledge and experiences of what went before, of what is expected in the future, of how to appreciate the moment in the present. Locals can identify sounds, scents and help distinguish when the visual overlay becomes complex.” Ron also offers tips for locals.
Travel Pulse, part of the New Jersey-based Northstar Travel Group, in mid-June 2023 reported that Tourism Cares updated its Meaningful Travel Map that helps members of the travel trade and travelers find authentic, community-led experiences, services, accommodations and tours. Travel Pulse calls the update “a one-stop global source for vetted information and travel experiences.”
Also part of Northstar, Travel Weekly reports that American Express Travel, a top-ranked TW “power list” company, this year published Stay With Purpose, a directory of 16 hotels mostly in North America that are committed to furthering conservation, community development and inclusive travel.
For-profits and nonprofits operate everywhere around the States and Canada. Vancouver, B.C.-based ToursByLocals offers more than 100 tours across the United States and maybe 1,000 more across populated continents. One nearby me in Atlanta is a foodie tour along the Atlanta Beltline, a 22-mile rail-trail and multimodal transit corridor conceived by my friend Ryan Gravel that’s due for completion at a cost of about $5 billion around 2030. The Beltline will connect 45 intown neighborhoods of every social level and advance public housing with an annual economic impact of some $10 billion. More than half the system is complete or in construction; about all the rest in design.
In New York, the nonprofit Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side of Manhattan guides visitors on walking tours of their two tenement buildings and Orchard Street neighborhood that bring to life the former immigrant and migrant residents between the 1860s and 1980s. Again for millions who live in the metro Travel to the Deep Nearby.
Vital new rail extensions
Two favorite cities of visitors from around the world this year have opened or will open major additions to their commuter rail networks.
One city famous for its choked freeways and crawling commutes claims new fame as home to the longest light-rail line in the world. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which opened a 1.9-mile subway tunnel under downtown in June, caps a $1.8 billion project that now lets riders travel nearly 50 direct miles between Long Beach and Azusa and between Santa Monica and East Los Angeles.
Downtown Miami later this summer will supplement its already existing multimodal hub with two new heavy rail connections.
Brightline will connect downtown Miami with Orlando International Airport with only 4 or 5 stops between. It will offer 2-class service and provide stress-free and, at 3+ hours, probably quicker transportation.
The 9.05-mile extension of Tri-Rail from its existing exchange with Miami-Dade County’s Metrorail at a station just north of Miami International Airport known as the Tri-Rail Downtown Miami Link will now allow transfer-free connections the 67 miles from just north of West Palm Beach.
The adventure tour operator Intrepid Travel has been named to the Time 100 Most influential Companies for 2023. Says Time, Intrepid became the “first global tour operator to establish verified, science-based carbon-reduction targets” with record-breaking booking days after launching a flight-free program, along with more than 100 locally led tours. The company was founded in Melbourne, Australia in 1989 and has one of 4 main offices in Toronto. It’s a certified B Corporation, which is to say, mission-led to include social and environmental purpose in addition to profitability.
NOTES
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/feed/greenhouse-gas-pollution-trapped-49-more-heat-2021-1990
https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/greenhouse-gases-continued-to-increase-rapidly-in-2022
https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/bucket-list-destinations
https://www.planeta.com/local-travel/
https://www.toursbylocals.com/
https://www.toursbylocals.com/famousfoodtour
https://ryangravel.com/about-2/
https://www.tenement.org/events/
https://www.tri-rail.com/pages/view/downtown-miami-link
https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Tour-Operators/Intrepid-Travel-makes-Time-list-Most-Influential-Companies; https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/movement/theory-of-change/
