There and back again
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- Aconvenienttruth
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more from VC2 on TV:
We all know that climate change is going to affect the way that we live our lives. In order to reduce our emissions, the way that we eat, drink, build and travel has to change. Our challenge is to make these changes as painless as possible.
Better still, is is to make these changes so life enhancing that they're way, way better than the way things currently work, and saving the planet becomes really easy.
So what can be done about something as down right convenient as cheap long haul air travel?
As a massive carbon emitter, it is the bane of many a committed environmentalists' existence, mostly because (to me at least) it's so damned convenient and satisfying to use.
Last winter I decided to see what a green alternative to long haul air travel would be like. I needed to get to Canada from the UK, and had time and money to spend taking 'slow travel' to the extreme: 12 days at sea, crossing the Atlantic by cargo ship.
Now, it's important to note that Im not suggesting long haul cargo ship travel is the solution to all our problems. Not at all. Cargo ships (and the bunker fuel they use) aren't great in terms of emissions, passages are expensive and time consuming compared to flying (£1000 there, £700 back), and the ships themselves arent really designed to take passengers (no stabilizers made it a rocky ride across the big pond).
But what I did learn from my trip is what the spirit of green long haul travel will be like, and what the real advantages of slow travel are.
Whether we use 1800s-style long haul sail boats, old fashioned propeller planes or massive luxury zeppelins, the chances are that tomorrows carbon-free long haul travel is going to take a little longer than our energy burning planes take today.
The ultimate question is this: how can we make a longer, slower journey work for us? How can we turn it into a positive opportunity, and how will that change the way that we think about travel?
I hope that this short film about my trip to Canada, across the Atlantic by cargo ship, will help to answer some of these questions.
Better still, is is to make these changes so life enhancing that they're way, way better than the way things currently work, and saving the planet becomes really easy.
So what can be done about something as down right convenient as cheap long haul air travel?
As a massive carbon emitter, it is the bane of many a committed environmentalists' existence, mostly because (to me at least) it's so damned convenient and satisfying to use.
Last winter I decided to see what a green alternative to long haul air travel would be like. I needed to get to Canada from the UK, and had time and money to spend taking 'slow travel' to the extreme: 12 days at sea, crossing the Atlantic by cargo ship.
Now, it's important to note that Im not suggesting long haul cargo ship travel is the solution to all our problems. Not at all. Cargo ships (and the bunker fuel they use) aren't great in terms of emissions, passages are expensive and time consuming compared to flying (£1000 there, £700 back), and the ships themselves arent really designed to take passengers (no stabilizers made it a rocky ride across the big pond).
But what I did learn from my trip is what the spirit of green long haul travel will be like, and what the real advantages of slow travel are.
Whether we use 1800s-style long haul sail boats, old fashioned propeller planes or massive luxury zeppelins, the chances are that tomorrows carbon-free long haul travel is going to take a little longer than our energy burning planes take today.
The ultimate question is this: how can we make a longer, slower journey work for us? How can we turn it into a positive opportunity, and how will that change the way that we think about travel?
I hope that this short film about my trip to Canada, across the Atlantic by cargo ship, will help to answer some of these questions.
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- groups:
- VC2 on TV, VC2 Top Contenders UK
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- tags:
- VC2 on TV, VC2 Top Contenders UK
