Muskoka Sunset
As I prepare to move back to the City on Labour Day after a summer in my
sinful second home, I am thinking about carbon offsets for my 2-1/2 hour drive. But offsets are out of fashion, considered akin to the
purchase of indulgences from the medieval church- a few bucks for the forgiveness of our sins of consumption.
So what. As
Ron Dembo wrote in TreeHugger, "Over time, the cost of carbon will rise and will be factored into all the products and services we consume, and this will begin to have greater impact on our behaviour as the price differential between our old habits and a new greener lifestyle increases." But it isn't yet, so perhaps my purchase of an offset is my own little voluntary carbon tax.
I am putting my money into local trees, via
Muskoka Envirocredits....
Wired does a little tidbit in their latest issue titled
Ecuador Regreens the Galápagos. After touring Ecuador with the Rainforest Alliance, I felt that I was so close that I had to see the Galapagos and popped over for a short visit. I wasn't going to write about it because
Brian covered it last year and, frankly, I felt really guilty about it. But after seeing this in Wired, I felt I had to.
...
The Lobert family explores neighboring-province British Columbia, Canada on an eco-vacation. Credit Liz Lobert
From photos of cattle drives in
Kenya to old huts and new power lines in South America, our readers sent in their
eco-vacation photos for our weekly user-generated slideshow. Some travelled far -- cramping their carbon-conscience lifestyle -- by
flying to South America and Australia, but kept their environmental impact down by biking and
buying local food while there. Others ventured to new places but stayed closer to home -- like the Lobert family (pictured) who travelled to neighboring province British Columbia, Canada -- and slept in tents, utilized
public transit, and enjoyed the great outdoors. So take a breath of fresh air and your next eco-vacation virtually in our
Readers' Eco-Vacation Photos: Hiking, Biking, Camping, and More Slideshow.
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We know flying is dying, that the carbon footprint of air travel is huge. Many say we shouldn't fly at all. Then you visit places like the Chimborazo region of Ecuador, where community based tourism is a force for keeping people in their homes and building an industry based on local production of food, handicrafts and more. The Rainforest Alliance and a local group of indigenous organizers, Cordtuch, are doing important work. Is it all for naught?
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There are all kinds of threats to Ecuadorian Amazonia; the oil companies are nipping at the fringes. They build roads and the illegal loggers come in. It gets cleared for palm oil and other agricultural products.
While touring the area with the
Rainforest Alliance, I met Felipe Arteaga, their technical field coordinator. He is an amateur photographer, and I asked him to send me his photographs from the trip. They are a spectacular record of wildlife under threat.
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When I wrote about the
Napo Wildlife Center and wondered what options the local native peoples had to hold off the oil companies, one commenter pointed out that I could take the price of my plane ticket and do the right thing by sending them money.
But it is more complicated than that; the "best practices" that are being taught in the eco-lodges are spilling over into their everyday lives. They don't dine on monkey anymore because they realize that it is crazy to eat what the tourists want to see. The impact of eco-lodges goes beyond just catering to rich tourists, as the Sani Kichwa of the Napo River in Ecuador have found.
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TreeHugger readers know
flying is dying, and that the carbon footprint of travel is a problem. But is the answer to stop travelling? Don't tell that to the Añangu Kichwa of the Napo River in Amazonian Ecuador, who built and run the
Napo Wildlife Center on their community's lands. The
Rainforest Alliance took a group of journalists and bloggers to see the work they are doing in Ecuador, and how the Añangu and others are providing alternatives to the depredations of big oil.
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photo: J. Novak
I know that
eco-resorts are growing in popularity, and that's a great thing. According to
Sustainable Travel, 58.5 million Americans say they would pay more to use a travel company that strives to protect and preserve the environment. But hanging up the towels so that they don’t get washed two days in a row just doesn’t cut it. Being a
green hotel , takes much more than green washing. ...
Photo via Chumphon Cabana Resort & Diving Center
Although going green doesn't have to mean spending a bundle, it's much easier to find a
luxury eco-friendly resort than it is to find a cheap one. But we found five beach-centered resorts in areas all over the world that cost less per night than you'd spend on a week of organic groceries--think less than $65, and, at several of these resorts, less than $50. Even at those wallet-friendly prices, you won't have to compromise your green morals: Solar power, organic meals, and conservation efforts mean your vacation will leave the place even better than you found it....
Image via: Green Living Project
While traveling in South America this spring with
Green Living Project, I browsed through a local paper while I was waiting for another flight and came across an interesting carbon offset option, geared specifically for the eco-traveler.
CanopyCo now offers travel specific carbon offsets with the Quito-Galapagos-Quito, Ecuador route. Better yet, the offsets go directly back to reforest Ecuador....
Image via: Green Living Project
Love your KEENs? Well now your KEENs can show some love back by offering one lucky person the chance to take a trip to
South Africa to explore and help out with a local animal shelter. Lions, Tigers, Bears, Oh My. Well, not those kinds of animals. Here's how you can enter to win: ...
TourBook image via AAA.com. Photo via Dawn Ashley/Flickr.com.
You're on a
road trip when you take a detour and decide to make an unexpected stop for the night. Do you think about whether there's a
green hotel, motel, B&B or other eco-friendly lodging in the area? Would you even know where to look for one? Enter the
American Automobile Association's 2010
TourBook guides....
Rebeca Justicia, Director of Maquipucuna Foundation. Image via: Green Living Project
Traveling with
Green Living Project, I visited the
Maquipucuna Lodge and Reserve, another woman-owned eco-resort, this time in the Ecuadorian Amazon. You’re probably thinking – ‘I’ve never heard about the Ecuadorian Amazon. I thought that was just in Brazil. Must not be much there.’ (Or maybe you’re just thinking ‘What are all of these
women doing running resorts in the middle of the Amazon?) In fact, the opposite is true – because no reasearch had been done in the area, no one really knew what to find or how vast the flora & fauna population might be. ...
all images from Habitat Crew website
Tom Kotula and John Hauserman are nuts, plain and simple. But a lot of rowers are nuts; you have to be to get up at 4:30 in the morning to get out on often freezing water just to be screamed at by some 100 pound snotty kid with an attitude and a megaphone. A boat that carries eight strong rowers and the objectionable coxie might weigh 212 pounds dry and empty.
Those of us who don't like taking orders might scull in a single or double, with lighter oars in a boat that tops out at 50 pounds. a long row might be 10K. But Tom and John have converted what was a tub of a sailboat in 1972 into a monster double weighing a ton, and are rowing 2000 miles from Cleveland to Key West, to raise awareness, money and a few roofs for Habitat for Humanity. Among the rowing community, no doubt it will raise a few eyebrows.
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Cape Farewell Andes Expedition Members Measuring Carbon in Soil at Wayqecha Station. Image via Cape Farewell.
We reported last year on TreeHugger founder
Graham Hill's trip with Cape Farewell to the Arctic. This year you can feel like you're part of their latest expedition, an 18-day trek through the Andean Rainforest, thanks to
Twitter and a helpful GeoTracker....
They call it "a new idea in "get away from it all" tourism. Carré d'Etoiles is a tiny vacation prefab that can be dropped anywhere, is designed to "protect the environment" with "designer bio-ethanol heating, recyclable wood, etc."
And every unit comes with a telescope and a star chart....
Photo via Francois Schnell @ flickr
There's no better way to soak up a country than by bike: It's quicker than walking, greener than just about every other form of transportation, and you get to see towns, scenery, and people that you'd never encounter from the relative comfort of an air-conditioned tour bus. Whether you're a novice rider or a
super-fit cyclist, whether you want a family vacation or a romantic getaway, and whether you're looking for trips in the
U.S., Europe, Asia, or Latin America (If these aren't in your backyard, plan your
flight to be the greenest possible), the companies on these pages have the
tours and trails to give you the ride of a lifetime....
Long Horned Beetle Researcher at Los Amigos Research Station, Peru. Image via: Rob Holmes, Green Living Project.
This year, you've decided you want to do more on your vacation than lounge around like a beached whale, eh? Well why not volunteer, but not just volunteer anywhere, why not check out the
Los Amigos Biological Research Station which allows guests to work alongside and with researchers in the Peruvian Amazon. Pretty cool, right? ...
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the
if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
on 10.26.09
Photo: 
Image via: Ninety Acres Culinary School
Richard Branson, known for supporting all types of wild and high profile schemes (renewable energy, 
