It's Time to Re-Examine Our Travel Habits

Outdoor/Travel

Jun 23

synopsis

Is this travel trend ethical? Why are people really going abroad? Is it simply to please the social media deities so many of us bow down to? Are we actually striving to understand another culture and its people? And do the ends justify the means in an age of global climate change? That’s what I’d like to find out.

“If you ask people today what they want for their children, they’ll say they want to leave the world a better place, and they want to give their kids the things they didn’t have when they were growing up. But people aren’t making the choices necessary to make this rosy future happen.”

— Yvon Chouinard, Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman

“Every definition of adventure in Webster’s denotes an element of risk, yet adventure travel is almost always risk-free.”

— Yvon Chouinard, Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman

“It’s all too easy to destroy the present while exploring the past or the future.”

— Mark Boyle, The Way Home: Tales from a Life Without Technology

questioning

I’ve recently been asking myself if all the travel I’m doing is ethical. I’ve been curious about the devastating effect jet fuel has on the environment, along with much else.

Are cheap flights killing the planet?

Do airlines recycle all those complimentary bottles of water they hand out on international flights?

Is it okay to let people trample natural habitats to support the tourism industry?

Are Airbnbs driving up rent prices for locals and making cities unlivable?

Should we pop over to places like Amsterdam just to drink and be merry and make a mess of the town?

Should we visit countries with oppressive governments?

These and many other questions have been floating around in my head. I figure it’s time to look to those who’ve already tackled these issues.

Zaanse Schans, Zaandam, North Holland, Netherlands

tourism boards stalling tourism

One of the most timely examples is Amsterdam. The city is now attempting to curb tourism because of the debilitating effects it’s having on the attractions and the locals. Visitors jam the streets; many only go to legally smoke weed and get plastered, sometimes fighting on the streets or causing scenes. We saw it ourselves in the Red Light District.

It was overcrowded and seemed to be begging for change. And, as you’ll discover with additional research, the Netherlands isn’t the only country in this position.

“In all cases, the rise of technology has abetted this trend, through companies like Uber helping people to travel and people posting about their trips on social media. With an increasing concern about meeting global climate change commitments, it remains to be seen if other countries will follow the Netherlands’ lead and try to curb their influx of tourists.”

— Alex Ledsom, Forbes, 'Why The Netherlands Tourist Board Wants To Discourage People From Visiting'

The harm in flying & what to do about it

“If you’re flying, you’re adding a significant amount of planet-warming gases to the atmosphere — there’s no way around it. But there are some ways to make your airplane travel a little bit greener.”

— Tatiana Schlossberg, The New York Times, 'Flying Is Bad for the Planet. You Can Help Make It Better.'

The thought of flying as often as I do has plagued my mind the last few months. I knew there would be some environmental consequences to my frequent ‘adventuring,’ and I wanted to know exactly how bad it was.

Tatiana Schlossberg of The New York Times provides an illustration, “Take one round-trip flight between New York and California, and you’ve generated about 20 percent of the greenhouse gases that your car emits over an entire year.”

I’ve flown return from Dublin to Detroit about three times in the last year, and that doesn’t include smaller excursions to Europe. The resulting emissions from my incompetence are far greater than I’d imagined.

Schlossberg does offer hope, though, and it’s much needed. The author’s tips for offsetting the environmental harms of flying include:

(1) flying less
(2) purchasing carbon offsets through airlines like United and JetBlue
(3) flying coach, which results in far fewer emissions, and
(4) by generally educating yourself on ways to reduce your carbon footprint

Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland - Photo Courtesy of Evan Mosley

Burnout

Another theme I’ve noticed, one that I’ve wanted to ignore, is that I’m personally getting tired of travel. I’m burning out. I’m not pushing myself out of my comfort zone or going on daring adventures as much as I once did. I’m becoming stagnant. And, to me, that means it’s probably time for a break.

It’s very possible you’re feeling the same if you travel a lot. An interesting article to check out is 15 Signs You May Have Travel Burnout by Travel + Leisure. It may help you understand that you’re in a similar position, and it provides great insights for curing burnout. (If you want to keep on traveling, that is.)

Guilt

“... visiting places as exotic as the Amazon left me somewhat troubled by guilt, as if I’d participated in a kind of Tragedy of the Common Vacation Spots; simply by being in those pristine places, I’d played a role in degrading them.”

— Maura Kelly, Time, 'Stay Home: Travel Is Overrated'

At the end of the day, it all boils down to guilt. Guilt for excessively burning fossil fuels. Guilt for damaging natural habitats simply with my presence. Guilt for not trying hard enough to meet locals or experience the culture. The list could go on, and I know I’m a perpetrator of a dangerous trend that people don’t want to acknowledge.

There are ways to combat these issues and continue traveling, but sometimes I wonder: am I better off going home and just staying there? Should I rid my life of social media, along with its subsequent desire to show off where I’ve been and where I’m going?

Conclusion

Is this a ‘first world problem’? Definitely. Does this debate I’m having with myself mean I’m privileged? No doubt. But there’s a fact many people in the developed world fail to remember: we often make our problems the problems of those in developing countries through waste, devastation, ignorance, and exploitation. If I can reduce my role in any of those, the better off we all are.

To speak on privilege, my ability to travel doesn’t justify my doing so, and it definitely doesn’t give me the right to do so irresponsibly.

Now, without living abroad, I probably would’ve never considered any of this. I must remind myself of that. Without traveling to and studying in far-off places, I may not have grown to challenge my own lifestyle and its consequences. For that, I am endlessly grateful.