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Taking A 'Greener' Trip to Walt Disney World
by Beverly Carr and Craig Jackson, PassPorter Guest Columnists
The flights are booked, our Beach Club Villas studio is
confirmed and the dining reservations are made. I am in Disney planning heaven!
My husband and daughter share my passion and excitement for everything Disney.
However, my excitement is tinged with a little guilt. I love my Walt
Disney World annual trip. I love sharing happy times with my family and friends,
but I'm not being a friend to the environment.
I am told that airline flights are among the fastest growing sources of global
warming gases. Our trip in August will include a return transatlantic flight of
8,455 miles. Each one of us will add about a ton and a half of CO2 to
the atmosphere. Obviously, the greenest option is not to fly at all -- I could
sell my Disney Vacation Club points and holiday much closer to home ... but I
love Walt Disney World!
So, this year, part of my Disney-obsessed
vacation planning took the form of investigating ways to help the environment in
exchange for us taking those flights. A fitting choice seemed to be to offset
the CO2 from our flights, so I began checking out various web sites.
It transpired that a friend and colleague of mine is a regular transatlantic
Disney-goer too! He'll be in Orlando again this year and has already offset the
carbon emission for his flights. He knows what he is talking about, too. He's an
architect who specializes in environmental design, so he understands the issues
behind carbon emissions and climate change and the effects that we can have on
the environment in our day-to-day lives. I asked him to explain the technology
behind my proposed solution.
In an ideal world we'd be able to hop
across the 'pond' in aircraft that gave out no emissions, but we live in the
real world so have to be a little bit more imaginative in our approach. Carbon
offsetting is one of those imaginative approaches and one that a 'light' green
like me can get behind. It's still a bit controversial because it doesn't stop
harmful emissions taking place, but it does invest money in technologies and
projects to counteract (or offset) those emissions.
Offsetting works like
this. We know that a UK to Orlando flight produces around 1.5 tons of
CO2 per person. A simple online calculation estimates the monetary
cost of preventing 1.5 tons being emitted somewhere else to balance things up.
There are lots of ways in which CO2 can be offset. Your money could
be used to plant new trees to help absorb CO2, or it could be
invested in renewable technologies like hydro-electric power stations or even
something as simple as providing additional insulation in houses.
But
before we all rejoice at such a simple solution let me sound a note of caution.
Sites are springing up all over the web offering to stamp out your carbon
footprint at the click of a mouse. "Deep" greens will tell us carbon offsetting
schemes don't work and that all we're doing is lining the pockets of a few dot
com entrepreneurs who appease our guilt at flying by taking our cash. So we need
to be aware that not all carbon offsetting sites are necessarily the same.
It's very important to do your research before you part with your money
and make sure that the measures you are paying for really are going to make a
difference. They are using your money, so only give it to those who will use it
wisely.
Look for sites with a wide range of carbon offset projects where
your money can be invested. Make sure they have a strong verification processes
and are regularly reviewed and audited independently. Good sites will have a
clear Corporate Responsibility statement where you should be able to check these
things out.
Another good sign is if the site follows the Carbon Neutral
Protocol. This is currently a voluntary standard, but it's likely to form the
basis of the UK Government's independently regulated Code of Practice early in
2008.
Once you've done your research, actually offsetting your carbon is
easy. It's just like booking your park tickets online. You tell the site where
you're traveling from and it'll work out the cost. All you need then is a credit
or debit card! At the moment, we in the Western World are using up natural
resources at such a rate that we need three whole Earths to support us. In the
future we want our children to be able to enjoy their own visits to Walt Disney
World and to introduce their own children to the magic. They have a much better
chance of being able to do that if we all make a few simple changes now.
Related Links:
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Updated 04/06/07
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