How can we make adventure more sustainable?
I understand the benefits of adventure, increased social mobility by widening your social circle and professional network, education, life skills, increased resilience – the list goes on. However, how can we access these huge opportunities knowing that we’re contributing to an unsustainable way of living.
The obvious solution of just divorcing ourselves from fossil fuels isn’t quite that simple. Electric vehicles are still a relatively expensive technology (the cheapest we found was £20,725 thanks to a BBC Top Gear article) meaning its adoption is still tied to socioeconomic challenges that we’re trying to overcome as we recover from a global pandemic. Conflict in Ukraine only exacerbates this through energy uncertainty and the cost-of-living crisis it has contributed to.
But back to the question in hand. Firstly, the problem can be split into two questions:
1. How do we reliably calculate what our carbon usage is?
2. How can we prevent or reverse the damage?
I’ll attempt to deal with this challenge in each of its constituent parts in the near future.
How do we reliably calculate what our carbon usage is?
My research revealed that there are companies out there that use their complex algorithms to calculate your carbon usage to give you a score, but how accurate this is will require further investigation. Once you’re you know what it is, you can clearly decide how to reduce it to net zero – in line with the 2050 net zero goals.
One of the main problems I can already see here is deciding on a limit of where your responsibility starts and where businesses (such as the clothing companies, transport agencies, where your food comes from, etc).
Once we know how much we’ve accurately generated, how do we reverse the damage our adventure project has caused?
This part of the problem is more complex than the initial question, as that can be solved using discussion and data, however this part needs to be thought of from multiple viewpoints: how immediate do we want the reversal to be?
5, 10, 15 years…?
This Guardian article deconstructs the issue in great detail and helped us to see that the effectiveness of simply planting more trees, may not be realised for decades or ever occur (such as if they’re planted in lowlands that subsequently get flooded as a result of climate change). Furthermore, simply planting a seed may have prevented another, more resilient species from taking its place (if you’re in or on the edge of a relatively densely covered area for example, the expectation is that the space would be taken up by other seeds naturally adopting that space).
What opportunities for low and no carbon travel and adventure can we see?
This question also gets bound up in the immediacy of the when the carbon is generated.
So whilst cycling could be perceived as a great balance between the need to travel, see the world, help local economies, the manufacture of the bike and components may be carbon intensive when compared to ‘fastpacking’ the same distance. The question then becomes one of time and remoteness, i.e, if you travel slower by hiking, how remote can you go between getting resupplied with fresh water, food, and medical aid if you need it.
Ultimately, this will be a long-term goal for me to better understand just how carbon intensive adventures can be, so look out for how I get on with finding out!
References
https://sustainability.georgetown.edu/community-engagement/things-you-can-do/
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/these-are-10-cheapest-electric-cars-currently-sale-today
https://www.carbonfootprint.com/carbonoffset.html
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/sep/16/carbon-offset-projects-carbon-emissions
https://www.carboncare.org/en/co2-balance.html
https://www.onetrust.com/blog/carbon-offsets-101-guide-for-going-climate-neutral/
