So here we are in the UK, a quarter of the way round the world from where we started the month. And we're very much enjoying our visit.




On the way back (assuming that the entire globe is not in lockdown by then on account of the ghastly virus currently besetting poor China), we are hoping to cover a small part of the distance on the surface. Even so, by the time we get home, we will still have racked up more than 21,000 flight-kilometres each...

We have a very valid reason for travel. Nevertheless, I'm increasingly conscious that flying is something we really have to do less of.

OK, we're not Bill Gates or Paris Hilton (who reportedly generate "10,000 times more carbon emissions from flying than the average person"), but we're definitely at the "guilty" end of the carbon inequality spectrum.

I can go on at length about how we don't have a car, and we walk a lot, and we don't have children, and we're not huge consumers, and we're mindful of energy use -- but the fact of the matter is that the flying thing is a massive stroke against us.


In the past I would read colonial-era accounts of life and travel, and be astonished by the total obliviousness of otherwise perceptive writers to the evils and injustices of the system they were part of. What similar insouciance is our generation blithely unaware of, I used to wonder.

Well, it's the environment, isn't it? Until very, very recently, my own travel accounts carried pretty much zero reference to the problem my experiences were contributing to. And that's really inexcusable.

But what to do? Even assuming we could wave goodbye to our dreams of a big OE, choosing to give up long-distance travel is not really an option, given that our families live so far away.


So we need to be more creative. I don't know if these ideas will prove to be sustainable (or if a rampant virus will turn out to be just what the environment needs), but here are my thoughts so far:

1. We need to work to get more bang for our environmental buck. So travel must be integrated into family visits, rather than separate from them.

2. We need to go surface wherever possible. Admittedly, this is not easy when you live on an island, or when getting to Europe overland involves crossing countries with significant visa hurdles (China, Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan...). But we could do better.

3. And of course the best kind of surface travel is via public transport.

4. We need to eliminate popping... Just because you can pop to Thailand on the plane doesn't mean you should... Again, integrated journeys are the way to go, and if you can't spend a reasonable amount of time in a place, don't go.

5. And obviously, we need to make the most of home, most of which still remains unexplored...




Work in progress...