After a week of joining in the protests with Extinction Rebellion, and after watching David Attenborough’s ‘Climate: The Facts’. We were left with a nagging question on our minds.
We are promoting action on climate change, we need to act now before it’s too late. But we engage and contribute to the travel industry, one of the most prominent climate polluters in the world.
So what can we do? Does this mean that we should stop going on holidays?
We’re not going to lie – this is a huge dilemma for us (first world problems, ey!), and it bought home exactly how everyone must feel when they know doing something they love can have such a bad impact on the planet.
Whether it be dietary, travel or fashion; why does something we love have to have such a bad impact on our planet?
We’ve had a few snarky responses to us – people who enjoy travelling and holidays – and whether we can support something like Extinction Rebellion, insinuating that climate change and travelling are mutually exclusive.
We don’t believe this to be the case, we believe you can travel and still support environmental movements. But we know we could do better. In fact, we believe everyone can do better. What’s needed is a BIG reduction and rebalancing of our own habits.
Because if more people change, and we put pressure on the government to act responsibly and honestly about the climate crisis we’re facing, we can make a real difference. We can force a much needed step-change in attitudes to the way we abuse the climate.
We’d encourage you to check out Extinction Rebellion. Here’s a quick snapshot of their three demands for the government, and you can find out more via this link: https://rebellion.earth/the-truth/demands/
- Tell the truth: the government must tell the truth by declaring a climate ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change
- Act now: Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025
- Beyond Politics: Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.
The long story short is that if the governments across the world don’t get serious about climate change, the destruction of this planet will only get worse.
So, having spent the past week being inspired by some truly incredible people, here’s how we plan to enact change in our lives, and we encourage you all to do the same too. In our view, it’s all about making the right choices. And yes, sacrifices.
Firstly, let’s talk about the things we’re proud of
We’re constantly learning and trying our hardest to make the smallest impact on this planet, because we love this world, and we want our future children, and their children to see the same things we’ve seen.
Over three years ago we removed all animal products from our diets, and this year we’ve made a huge effort to not buy single use plastic – we only use materials which can be recycled. We also always look at ways in which we can reduce our carbon footprint when it comes to eating fruit and veg, we only take public transport or walk to work, and we only drive our van no more than once or twice a month on average.
Not only that, but over the years we’ve been driven by the realisation that the clothes we own are perfectly fine, providing they’re not broken – and if we do need to buy new clothes, we don’t buy into fast fashion.
These changes have meant that we’ve reduced our carbon footprint fairly substantially. And making these changes was relatively easy.
However, we have things we want to work on
Last year we went a bit mad with our holidays. Travelling to and from Barcelona, where we lived for six months, and a few more times for work and holidays.
This isn’t sustainable in a world where we need to drastically reduce everyone’s carbon footprint.
It’s probably remarkable how long it took for the penny to drop here. But we’re now seriously looking at ways in which we can still enjoy travelling, but with a cleaner footprint and conscience.
We’re committing to alternative options to flying where possible. And if it costs us more money and time in the process (Eurostar or driving v. flying to Europe) then so be it.
We’re also going to limit ourselves to one non-essential flight a year from now on. And when we do fly, we will be donating money to IMPROVE and OFFSET our carbon footprint, using charities such as:
We don’t believe carbon offsetting is the solution, but we have to do something to balance the scales better.
But this is where we need help from the likes of Extinction Rebellion. Our attempts at being more green would be a hell of a lot easier if big businesses actually made drastic, serious moves to make air travel greener.
One of Extinction Rebellion’s demands – a Citizen’s assembly – we hope, would make a suggestion that would hopefully look at this, creating serious regulation and legislation, without corporate interests getting in the way, that will guide business decision making. This would hopefully force companies and our whole society to look at solutions that aren’t fossil fuel based or so climate damaging, because our window of opportunity to avoid a climate implosion is getting smaller and smaller.
That, in a nutshell, is why we’re supporting Extinction Rebellion.
We feel privileged that our biggest environmental decision right now is that we can’t fly everywhere we want to. Give it ten or less years, and if we don’t sort out this mess, then our problems will be far, far worse.
The time to act is now. Join the rebellion.
These Wild Journeys 