Green Holidays

To highlight water pollution, a brave millionaire is about to set sail in a 60ft boat made of plastic bottles stuck together!

The ecologist adventurer, Mr de Rothschild, is setting off to highlight the problem of the ever growing ’sea of plastic’ in the Pacific Ocean. This ’sea’ is currently in an anomoly of the world’s wave patterns. This means that all floating rubbish from the worlds oceans eventually ends up stuck together in this one place, somewhere between the US mainland and Hawaii.

This mass of rubbish floating just under the waters surface weighs an estimated 3.5 tonnes and is about the size of Peru, or around 3 times the size of Japan!

Plastic Facts:
The UN estimates that there are around 46,000 pieces of plastic floating on every square mile of the oceans - devastating the wildlife it supports. Seabirds are also affected and albatros ‘catch’ disposable lighters and bottle tops thinking they are fish and feed them to their chicks. However, because they are not digestible, the chicks bellies fill with all this rubbish leaving no room for food - ultimately and painfully they starve to death, hungry in their nests.

And because it isn’t biodegradable, plastic is with us for ever - that means that every centimeter of plastic that has ever been made since if was first invented - is still in the world today. And todays figures suggest that around 100m tonnes of plastic is currently being produced each year!!!

And don’t think that all this plastic is from fishermen or cruise ships (although they do contribute) because your carefully disposed of plastic in your garbage could end up being send overseas for processing, those tiny sample bottles you used at the hotel in Mexico may be dumped not recycled, and even that small piece of packaging that blew out of your hand at a picnic or town event could also make it to the ocean.

How much of your plastic is floating in the worlds oceans and what are you going to do about it?

The Adventure:
This adventurer plans to sail (how eco friendly is that!) from San Fransisco on April the 28th this year - the exact day that his namesake - the Kontiki - set off on 62 years ago.

Heading down to Hawaii from there, he will try to navigate through the swirling mass of trash while charting their progress. They hope that this is a way to highlight the problems of this visible and dangerous pollution to both humans, wildlife and of course the effects it has on the world as a whole.

Your Contribution:
You can help do your bit locally by organising beach collections - where people walk along coastlines collecting litter and plastic then disposing of it correctly (contact your collections agency to make sure that you approve of their disposal or recycling techniques - if you don’t then complain about it).

Collections make sure that less waste gets into the ocean in the first place and wildlife and environments on land can also benefit. Why just do the beach - walk through woodlands, valleys and mountains doing the same!

This way you not only make your local environment that much nicer for yourselves and the wildlife - you can also have a far greater effect on the worlds environment.

Did you know that Cruising was worse than flying for carbon emissions and general waste?

I mean flying is still best avoided, but if you fly to the Caribbean for a cruise I think you would win the prize for the most carbon used for a 2 week vacation!!!

Some calculations would go as far to say that taking an engine powered boat from London to Naples would produce 7 times the amount of carbon as a flight between the 2 cities. Even on a direct route, it is still worse per passenger - the QEII would create about 8 times the amount of carbon as an equivalent flight to New York - that’s around 700kgs of carbon dioxide emissions per person on board more than flying there!

That really is a huge difference considering how much stick the airline industries get for their pollution - you rarely hear an ocean-going luxury cruise ship getting picked on, do you?

It’s not just carbon either:
A flight to Mexico for example, from the UK only takes around 11 hours. In that time passengers on board a standard plane have eaten breakfast, watched a film or 2, slept for a few hours or read a good book then eaten dinner. And you are there. Well, what else can you do crammed into those tiny seats with a steward/stewardess almost constantly in the aisles selling you stuff for over-inflated prices.

However, on a cruise ship which could take several days to head straight to Mexico across the Atlantic Ocean they don’t all just sit still.

The idea of a cruise ship is that the journey is part of your holiday, and it needs to be a pleasant experience. It is basically a holiday camp on water. Hotel rooms, a choice of restaurants, theaters and entertainment, stores galore, a pool and even a mini golf course. And all these things generate waste - a lot of waste.

Apparently there are restrictions on how the ships dispose of this waste, but unfortunately it’s not great news! According to the International Maritime Organisation (a UN body) ships are allowed to dump waste and untreated sewage straight into the sea - as long as they do it ‘at least 12 nautical miles from shore’!!!!

To me, this is outrageous. To think that anyone aboard a cruise ship or other ship in fact, thinks that it is ok to dump anything into the water is unbelievable. It’s just like a land-based hotel driving it’s rubbish to the beach and leaving it there. It doesn’t disappear on land or in the sea - so don’t drop litter anywhere.

And raw sewage directly into the sea is a disgrace. I think we are all aware that the tides and the winds move things around the world otherwise we wouldn’t have invented sailing ships and animals and plants wouldn’t have been able to colonise new lands - so where do they think this ‘poison’ will go? Are they 100% sure it won’t affect wildlife in the water, seabirds and the people, animals and plants on the coasts of the world?

Selfish Travelers?
Being so self-sufficient, these cruise ships are actually like all inclusive holidays resorts. Everything you could possibly need is on-board and even though you stop fleetingly at several islands and ports here and there, you no doubt don’t contribute any real money to the communities you visit.

Yes, a few trinkets might change hands or a piece of pottery, but there will be no lasting effect of your visit - just a poor town waiting for the next ship to come in and flood their stores and markets with loud, greedy tourists. And a ship refusing to visit a port or changing course for a sick passenger could mean disaster for the local people who miss out.

And when you do go to port somewhere exotic, you probably won’t sample their foods, their culture or their lifestyle - and it really isn’t worth learning their language for the 4 hours you are in their country, is it?

Guests on a cruise ship aren’t really ‘tourists’ they are day-trippers on a box ticking tour. Been there, been there, been there. Not experienced that, lived there and learned this.

Conclusion:
To be fair, I would rather someone flew to a continent or country and spent 2 weeks or more there, spoke a few words of their language and lodged in locally run accommodation than just jumped around from place to place not really doing anything of any use to anyone.

And knowing now that cruising is so much worse for the environment in the first place, why not give fliers a break and start to impact more on the damage cruise ships are doing to the world, the seas and the countries they visit.

I know that every little bit helps, but if you can stop the most damaging first, then you make a bigger impact - and much sooner There are around 300 ships damaging our planet at the moment - and I think we should stop that from expanding. Don’t you?

If you are looking for an easy way to take your green holidays, then you want to look for a company that have plenty of experience - and can offer you an amazing experience.

To save all the effort of researching destinations, then resorts, then hotels and all the individual tours through reputable companies, you can take your first green holiday with the relative ease that someone has done all the hard work for you - and you only need to research them!

This is especially a great idea if you are not 100% up to date with all the green issues surrounding travel and don’t want to end up knee-deep in information that you are not quite sure what to do with.

What Makes Them Green:
Well firstly, they are a non-profit organisation which means that they are not just in it for the money, and secondly a nearly all their holidays involve supporting a community or researching wildlife data.

Examples include working to ‘create a UNESCO Seascape reserve’ in Fiji, and working with Maasai and Quechua communities in Tanzania and Ecuador. They don’t just fly you to these places and leave you to it - they teach you the language and cultures, and then support you throughout your stay.

What They Do:
GreenForce work with many organisations around the world to make sure that they are focusing their efforts in the right places, but also to make sure that they follow agreed code of practices for relevant work and expeditions.

They also make sure that you enjoy yourself as well! Included in most of their expeditions (which can be anything from 2 weeks to 12 months) are trips to the famous sights in that country - for example and elephant-back safari in India or a week in Zanzibar or even a trip to the Galapagos Islands.

They are even carbon neutral - with regards to the flights taken to their destinations.

Where Do They Go:
With worldwide destinations including The Bahamas, South Africa, Fiji, India and Nepal there is something for everyone, everywhere. Prices for expeditions range from £850 for 14 days to £2,400 for 10 weeks - usually inclusive of all food, accommodation and training.

Your green holidays or adventures could include:

• Panda Conservation in China
• Marine Conservation in Fiji or The Bahamas
• Working with the Red Cross in the Andes
• Living and working with the Maasai in Africa
• Teaching in Schools across India and Asia
• Surveying Great White Sharks in South Africa

If you were looking for something particular of something long term, this company can put together bespoke trips to almost anywhere doing almost anything.

You can also offer to work abroad in a paid position for up to a year in Australia or Ecuador for example, and they will support you throughout and assist you in finding work and making contacts.

But Flying Isn’t Green!
No it’s not - and you don’t need to travel to the other side of the world to help a charity or support children or adults in a needy community - but helping kids in an after school club in Wales is nothing compared to teaching English to Nepalese children in the Himalayas.

You want adventure, but you want to be a bit environmentally sensitive about it. And this is where you can do it. GreenForce do not include the flights to the expeditions allowing you to decide how to get there - and for how long you stay.

If you were to sail to South America, travel to Africa by Train or get to Australia by coach (the OzBus) then you could add much more to your adventure. Taking a longer holiday increases you enjoyment of the whole experience and will of course lessen the times you need to travel to different places each time.

Flying to Mexico and then travelling through central America on public transport could save you 5 or 6 separate trips to Belize, Costa Rica, Panama and Guatemala for example - saving long-haul flights. You will see the people, learn the language and get involved in anything you want along the way.

If you then add on a boat to Ecuador or Peru, you could stay there volunteering or teaching for a year or more all for the ‘green cost’ or that one flight.

Worth a look: try www.greenforce.org