I have a confession to make. I’m killing the planet.

I regularly hop on a plane to some far-flung destination — just for fun and because I feel like it. Barrels of kerosene are then burned on my behalf, blasting literal tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. I do this dozens of times a year.

It should be obvious why this is bad. Climate change is the biggest challenge of our times, but my travel lifestyle is not exactly helping.

It depends on which carbon calculator I use, but my trips this year will likely have been responsible for emitting anywhere between 5 and 10 metric tons of CO2e.

That might be a bit abstract, so let’s put that in perspective.

Back home, I have a fairly low-carbon intensive life. I don’t own a car, I don’t eat much meat, and I get around Lisbon mostly by shared electric motorbikes. Good stuff!

But here’s my estimate for the past year, according to a UN carbon footprint calculator, which also shows how much of my carbon footprint is due to flying:

Holy crap!

Clearly, my personal carbon footprint is out of control, and it’s mostly due to travelling. Even if I reduce my carbon footprint in other areas, one or two more flights will easily cancel this out.

This is not something travel bloggers or travellers seem to talk about often. But it’s an important issue, especially given that the reports about climate change are getting increasingly dire. The UN has recently warned that we have just 12 years left to avoid a climate catastrophe. Other reports suggest the world is not at all on track to slow climate change.

By the way, a staggering 8% of all global emissions come from tourism. The travel community should be talking about this a lot more.

But it’s a thorny issue. Probably in part because, realistically, it’s impossible to travel in a way that’s truly environmentally friendly. As others have pointed out, sustainable travel does not exist. Whichever way you look at it, you’ll be doing harm by using fossil fuel-powered vehicles to move around the planet. The technologies needed to be a truly responsible traveller do not yet exist or have not yet been implemented.

What we can at least do for now is to moderate our use of the most polluting types of transportation. Planes are about 20 times worse per kilometer than trains, for example. It doesn’t always make sense to travel overland, but cutting unnecessary flights is definitely a way to lower your carbon footprint.

I once had a heated discussion with a friend about climate change, who took things to a logical extreme and suggested I should just stop flying altogether. It’s the only ethical choice, he said. But it was particularly easy for him to say, as he already never flies (out of fear of flying). While it’s a nice idea, I feel I still also have to live my life. If I’m perfectly honest, travel gives me far too much joy to give up (and I guess it’s my job now), so I’m afraid I do still want to fly a number of times a year.

Of course, a time may come when that is no longer tenable — I’m not sure where the future will take us. Perhaps one day we’ll all be flying in carbon-neutral planes, or perhaps air travel will need to be seriously curtailed. 

For now, I think a good first step is to moderate my flying. I think there are certain flights that are unnecessary or wasteful (e.g. for short weekend trips) and these are easiest to eliminate. Choosing overland travel can in some cases also be practical. But I also want to do a little bit more than that. 

I’ve thought about how I could make some other kind of positive impact, and I came up with a couple of ways.

1. Offsetting my flights

Firstly, I’m now offsetting the carbon emissions of all my flights. This means that every pound of carbon emitted will be compensated through various green development projects.

Offsetting is a little controversial, as it doesn’t truly tackle the root problem. But I think it’s better than nothing, at least until more permanent solutions are available. If offsetting sounds a bit technical, just think of it as an environmental donation that will reduce the CO2 in the atmosphere equal to what you’re putting in by flying (for example, by building more windmills or solar panels).

You can sometimes choose to offset your flights by ticking a box when you book your flight (as some airlines give you this option). You can also do it through third-parties, which is a bit easier. I settled on the German company Atmosfair, after reading some good reviews.

Offsetting doesn’t have to cost you a fortune: for example, it’s about 25 EUR for a return trip from London to Bangkok. Roughly speaking, that’s only about 5% you pay extra to compensate for the negative effects of your flight on the environment.

2. Renewables investment

Like many other nerds, I’ve dabbled in hodling Bitcoin. It is, unfortunately, a horribly polluting currency. It’s been calculated that all cryptocurrencies combined use as much CO2 a year as one million transatlantic flights.

A year ago I sold my Bitcoin and put the proceeds into renewable energy funds. I’m now putting surplus revenues from Indie Traveller into cleantech as well. It’s probably a bad strategy to invest in only one industry, but I see this as more an activist thing. While I do think consumer behavior can have an effect, what’s really needed is a huge scaling up of clean energy, so I think it’s a good idea not to be invested in fossil fuel industries and to (indirectly) help companies that are making things better.

If this idea appeals to you too, consider putting savings into either a traditional green mutual fund (e.g. through your bank) or buying ETFs. The latter can be a lot cheaper and easier. In the US, you can buy cleantech ETFs easily using the Robinhood app. In Europe, this is possible through Revolut and other apps.

3. Supporting Cool Earth

Finally, I’ve been giving my support for some time now to Cool Earth, an organization that is working to halt rainforest destruction. They do this by developing sustainable livelihoods for local villagers, who then become forest protectors, with multiple villages eventually forming barriers against loggers and miners. Forests are an important carbon sink, so the more we can keep them standing, the better. (Not to mention their enormous ecological value, of course.)

 

To be clear, none of this makes my flying habit any less bad. My privileged ass is still flying around the world many times a year and shitting up the planet. These are just some mitigation strategies, but I’m at least hoping to make some kind of net positive impact. 

Perhaps someday we’ll have airplanes powered by sustainable synthetic fuels — and then all of this will be moot. Or maybe we’ll have to give up a lot of our long-distance travelling in the future. I have no idea which way it will go. 

But if nothing else, I think we should be more mindful of the environmental costs of travelling. We probably also need to have a broader conversation about sustainability, and (most importantly) vote for political leaders committed to addressing climate change.

How can travellers reduce the negative impacts of their travelling? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Some links may be affiliate links, meaning I may earn commission from products or services I recommend. For more, see site policies.