Flying is the new smoking: ecoescapes are part of answer?

Just had a call from a friend who pointed out that there was a great advert in The Independent today from: www.enoughsenough.org - they apparently are urging us all to email Gordon Brown re aviation. You can do that here. It also allows you to sign up with them - and encourage others to do likewise. See Independent front page here and download the advert here:
http://www.enoughsenough.org/gb.pdf

These adverts I've added to this blog entry, "Flying is the new smoking", also come from the www.enoughsenough.org
website and make the point about flying all too clear. We have to stop and use the alternatives.

Another good website is Lo-costAir.com - they remind us of the figures (infact Green party research I think if I remember correctly shows these figures are now an underestimate now) - anyhow:

You pay the aviation industry £173 every year...It is widely reported that aviation pays no tax on fuel and no VAT. WDM calculates that the net impact of these factors results in an effective subsidy to UK aviation in 2007 of £10.4 billion....so that the richest 18% of the UK can enjoy cheap flights...The average salary of passengers using British airports is £48,000.... which cause climate change that hits the poorest people in the world.

So what to do?

Well I recently came across this ecoescape website - they seek to contribute to the ‘information ecology’ about environmental change by providing info to help people make informed decisions about their travel options - they are not seeking a "a forced march to eco-utopia" but rather they seek to put the information in the tourist’s hand and say "now it’s your turn."

This is OK but we mustn't forget this will only appeal to a small section of the population: Tourism Concern has been, for many years, highlighting the issues around tourism. Yet the situation is getting worse with evermore lo-cost travel. Personal resposibilities can only go so far we must have action by our Governments - as I quote often there is just a handful of years in which to act - we cannot wait for all to change their views. Nevertheless as I've said before greens have failed to get across the fact that more often than not the green alternatives are often better....

Heres stuff below from the ecoescape website about their philosophy and a useful chart that makes us think more about travel and why we need to. Infact for me the one thing that this website fails to give enough emphasis to, is a look at why we need to escape in the first place...yes escape is fine but maybe we need to also look about how we are spending the rest of our lives?? Perhaps if we made some changes there we would not need to escape so much?

This is an area I have had long to think about - chronic illness meant that I was unable to travel like I did many years ago - now on top of that I have an awareness about climate change...... I can see all the wisdom in my words about looking at reasons for wanting to escape but that doesn't necessarily make it easier!!!

"Rather than simply deny the impulse to travel and explore the planet, ecoescape harnesses the urge and directs it towards ‘responsible escapism’. By responsible escapism we mean encouraging everyone to look more closely at local opportunities to escape the daily grind. We all need escapism from time to time, so rather than falling into the hands of pre-packaged, shrink wrapped commodity tourism, ecoescape offers a potential for change.

"That is a change in the way we understand travel, an opportunity to transform from tourist-consumer into tourist-producer. This implies a shift in keeping with other social changes which place more of an emphasis on the individual’s ability to make decisions for themselves, independently of so called ‘expert knowledge’. ecoescape aims to convert the status of the tourist from reckless hedonist into responsible eco-citizen.

"We think travel and wellbeing are inseparable. At the most basic level, we all want to just get away and may forget the destruction this brings. Our travels are subject to delay and are often rushed. One way out of this is to go on tours, but these restrict our freedom. Another option is just pure escapism and getting 'out of it'. Once the hangover wears off, we may be seduced by boutique hotels and chic hideaways. But soon the need for a more playful and active experience takes over. At this stage, we might choose a slower, more relaxed and balanced holiday. Finally we may combine all of these travel experiences and modes of wellbeing to search out an ecoescape. That is becoming more caring about our choice of travel and tourism whilst also developing a more mindful approach to ourselves and how we interact with the planet. In two words: responsible escapism."

All this brings me to a question about encouraging tourism in Stroud valleys. The District Council at the moment are looking at greening and promoting tourism - but is that really the way forward when we don't need more low paid jobs and there is already a shortage of affordable housing - we don't want more of our homes bought up to be used as holiday lets or second homes - perhaps the greenest way forward would be not to promote tourism here?

The Green Tourism Business Scheme for example which is often held up as a good example is a good start point but it clearly does not address any of the main social and economic structural issues behind our unsustainable life-styles. For example, it is focussed on practices rather than on underlying issues and personal values. It does not empower people to think about the problem for themselves - it gives them a checklist and a badge - it just doesn't go anywhere near deep enough. A company can go through the checklist, achieve a gold standard but be nowhere near sustainable - the absolute maximum you can achieve through the scheme is nowhere near best practice for sustainability, although it is a small step in the right direction. We need a much larger structural shift in the strategic direction of tourism including marketing and industry-wide training.

I think I'll leave this to discuss another time!!