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I've had a few comments about the effect my little hobby or "obsession" as one correspondent put it, is having on the environment. When I first started travelling ten years ago I doubt if I'd heard the phrase Global Warming, and recycling was a thing that few people did. That alone shows how times have changed!
The fact is that I do realise that I have an impact, the biggest being air travel. In my defence I'd say that if I can get anywhere by not flying I will! That's one way in which my fear of flying has a positive effect. My trip to Switzerland in 2006 was all by train. I've even travelled all the way back to the UK from both Japan and Syria overland.
I estimate that my personal Carbon Emissions through flying is about 40 Tonnes. That's a lot. I'm attempting to pay off these via ClimateCare. The universal reaction of my detractors to this was "planting trees won't solve this issue". This is doing ClimateCare an injustice. Yes they plant trees, but they do other things as well a good example is providing more efficient cooking stoves to developing regions.
Am I placating my conscience with this? Yes. But it's better than doing nothing.
I've even appeared on someone's climate change blog - The item had a couple of errors. I think he was rather surprised when I rang him up, in fact when I explained who I was, his first reaction was to laugh. Strange. I explained my point of view, and he's put another entry in his blog, my personal opinion is that both items are a bit biased, but it's his blog.
Another common theme in the correspondence is "don't travel".
At this moment in time, I can't do that. Sorry.
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