Has green travel as conceptualized today become narrow minded, shallow and embarrassingly self-congratulatory?
Photo by murti utami
Over the last year, we have seen an incredible upsurge in ability to purchase anything and everything “green.”
The travel industry is not immune to the green phenomenon. Travelers are now urged to take photographs instead of souvenirs, to eat local, and of course, to offset the environmental impact of their cross-continental trip with carbon credits.
If you happen to be traveling from London on Eurostar and poke your head into first class, you’ll probably see Mark Smith in Seat 61.
He’ll be reading a copy of T.E. Lawrence or enjoying the unspoiled (and unobstructed) scenery with his wife, Nicolette, and their year-old son, Nathaniel.
While he claims they live as an “ordinary family” in Buckinghamshire, Mark (a career railway man) is anything but ordinary to the 400,000 people a month who visit his website, The Man in Seat 61 where he outlines his favorite routes for train and ferry travel.
As the world gets wise to warming and brave new travelers embrace low impact lifestyles, green travel has become one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism industry.
Despite its rap as a collection of chic spas for wealthy, guilt-addled liberals who shell out $4,000 to commune with gorillas, green travel isn??t about giving a tour operator a month’s salary for some Disney-like attraction or consumer experience.
Tags: Green, Travel, Destinations, For, 2008
T’is the season of good cheer and cold nights. T’is the season of caroling and twinkling lights. T’is the season to buy, buy, buy.
As much as I enjoy the season, I find myself recoiling from the wanton consumption of the holidays. It’s not like people already don’t have enough things.
Yet all attempts to suppress buying more are swept aside in the spirit of “giving” and to opt out is to face scorn or worse, labeled “cheap.”
Tags: How, The, Green, Stole, Christmas
T’is the season of good cheer and cold nights. T’is the season of caroling and twinkling lights. T’is the season to buy, buy, buy.
As much as I enjoy the season, I find myself recoiling from the wanton consumption of the holidays. It’s not like people already don’t have enough things.
Yet all attempts to suppress buying more are swept aside in the spirit of “giving” and to opt out is to face scorn or worse, labeled “cheap.”
Tags: Welcome, The, Green, Holidays