Feeling guilty about carbon emissions when travelling? - Tue 01st April 2008
As a first time blogger and as part of the team at Villaspain it occurred to me that I should say something of great interest, or so I think, so I have saved myself until now. Others can be the judge. Feeling guilty about carbon emissions when travelling? How many of us have the inclination to carbon offset our holidays or even have the time to source the best solution if we were so inclined? There are so many contributing factors that create too much CO2 in the world that it is, in my opinion, unfair for anyone to be made to feel guilty about taking that holiday abroad by plane. Just how many times can you holiday in the UK before you want to escape? Some airlines do have a program of carbon offsetting, which you can view on their website. The introduction of the carbon offsetting that started in 2008 (Plant a Tree for Free), is an unusual step forward for us at Villaspain, since it allows all travellers to our villas to be guilt free about their holiday trip with us. Even though we do not sell flights or car hire this simple program compensates for everyone in the party by carbon offsetting the entire trip to one of our villas in Spain. What we do is simply plant a tree for every person on the booking form (including children and babies), at no cost whatsoever to the holidaymaker. The total count is shown on a clickometer on the homepage. Few simple facts; Examples of CO2 emissions when travelling to Alicante Spain from the UK are shown below, according to calculations by the Carbon Neutral Company; London to Alicante return flight 1,763 miles = 0.4 tons of CO2 Glasgow to Alicante return flight 2,472 miles = 0.5 tons of CO2 Car hire 300 miles (based on a 4 door 2 ltr petrol car, with 2 sharing) = 0.05 tons of CO2. A single person will therefore contribute approximately 0.50 (½) ton of CO2 in total for the transport involved for their return flight and car hire usage within Spain. A tree will absorb .71 tons of CO2 in its lifetime, which more than compensates for the trip over its lifetime. Since it makes no difference where you plant a tree for carbon offsetting, then it can be considerably more beneficial to plant in areas of the world that can actually help local communities too. These trees used in agroforestry and reforestation techniques will also help to restore the natural resources of rural farmers' degraded lands. The fast-growing trees will offer the farmer food, fodder and fuel, as well as land stability and fertilizer. Planting of the one-year-old healthy saplings is conducted independently by an accredited non profit-making tree-planting charity specialising in agroforestry throughout the developing world, where it is most needed in bringing social and economic benefits to the local communities. For more info about the trees then click on the CO2 Free Trees clickometer at the top of our homepage. Feeling better already? Bruce Gibson (soletrader of Villaspain)
