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The planet is clearly in crisis. The rise in the number and scale of natural disasters happening around the world is clearly mother nature trying to balance the equation, but struggling and suffocating in the smog, slime and slurry that we turn our world into to power the machines of capitalism and society.
"It's surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth."
Let’s be honest. If you’re traveling tens of thousands of miles, by plane, car or ship. Your carbon footprint is going to be bigger.
Try and pay your debt a little, so to speak.
As creatures, we are inherently bonded to nature. Many of us feel a grounding or calming sensation being back in it.
Many of us travelers dream of finding adventures in wild and wondrous places.
The crash of waves, the wind in the trees, the sound of a nearby waterfall.
These sorts of sounds resonate in us and have positive mental health effects.
If we want them to continue to exist, untarnished by waste and pollution.
We need to care about them and do our bit for them.
Every place you go is its own ecosystem. It has its own forms of life.
I like to think I try to leave every place I visit, a little better off than when I arrived.
I don’t always succeed…. But I try.
At the very least, I live by the mantra of:
LEAVE NO TRACE
Learned through engagement in Burning Man culture. This is a simple but effective ideal that I think everybody would do well to live by as a lifelong endeavor.
Its YOUR shit… So, it’s YOUR responsibility to keep YOUR shit together and properly dispose of it when you’re done with it.
That should be your baseline… the absolute minimum that you do.
From there, there are a great many other ways you can offset your footprint…
Many airlines now offer carbon offset, in which they will buy Green credits. The money you spend offsetting the carbon cost of your flight will go to nature conservation and restorative programs.
On the road, you can often be reliant on all of the different transport means to get around. Public transport is often cheaper and more efficient (in some places). Try to minimize your impact by basing yourself somewhere central in the continent and getting creative with how to get where you want to go from there.
Everywhere you go you’ll meet creatures of all kinds. Show them care and consideration. You’ve probably stumbled your way into THEIR home. It only seems right to show them respect and admiration.
We need our species more than ever as we are currently living through the 6th great mass extinction.
If you have the time, or the means while you wander through the wilderness. Find a way to help. Volunteer, look after injured wildlife, donate to local causes, help where help is needed.
I’m often picking up cigarette butts everywhere I go. They are the bane of nature and you find them everywhere, from pristine mountains to beautiful beaches. It seems that most people’s attitude around rubbish is that if its not their rubbish, its not their responsibility.
Whilst I can see how that can be true, I challenge you on that!
The care for this planet is everyone’s responsibility.
So, be the exemplar to others, pick up rubbish, even if it’s not yours and take pride in knowing that you left the places you visited even more beautiful and pristine for the next person.