Lee Foster (fostertravel.com)

Carbon Offsets as the New Indulgences in Travel

I hope the traveling public will show a measured response of respect and skepticism to the new "carbon offset" presentations about travel products.

The entire "green" movement in travel is so fraught with the prospect of chicanery that vigilance is desirable.  We have environmental problems on a huge scale--that is a given.  We also have creative people addressing those problems in travel in a responsible way--that is to be desired.  But there is also the huge possibility of the desire for profit masquerading as virtue.  Every single assertion and situation should be looked at with some intensity.

For example, today I received a press release about a small ship in the Galapagos celebrating its "carbon offset" contribution.

Seeing the Galapagos is one of the major environmental treats available to the world traveler, as I recount on my report about visiting there, which I have been able to do twice.  See

http://www.fostertravel.com/temp-GALAPA.html

Regarding carbon offset, in other words, here is the thinking: we have sinned by creating this huge consumption issue of sending travelers to the Galapagos.  We will redeem ourselves by investing some money in a "carbon offset."  The amount invested is not stated, so one does not know if the investment is trivial, as a marketing ploy, or substantial.

"Carbon offsets" run the risk of being the new "indulgences."  In the Middle Ages, as students of theological history may recall, the Catholic Church sold indulgences.  If you've sinned, you could redeem yourself by buying indulgences.  All had sinned, as is human.  But indulgences might keep you out of hell or reduce your time in purgatory.  Since the time frame was all eternity, the investment was considered appropriate.  In today's terms it might be seen as risk avoidance, possibly for a long time.  Selling indulgences was a profit center for the Catholic priesthood of the time.  It also provoked a young German, Martin Luther, to nail a few theses to a door of a German church and start some corrective actions.

If the "carbon offset" is highly focused, then I think it should be supported today.  For example, if a Galapagos cruise "carbon offset" goes to immediate solar and wind installations on the Galapagos, making them more sustainable, then this would be a good thing, assuming the Galapagos has the solar gain and the wind energy resource to harvest.  That is another issue.  We don't want wind power installations in becalmed environments, just for virtue.  We don't want solar panels installed, with virtue, in total cloud cover environments.  Each claim to virtue needs to be assessed, and supported thankfully when found to be economical.

There is a lot of technical know-how required to evaluate the complex world of the Galapagos and all the yachts/small cruise ships that service it.  Can more efficient engines power the yachts? Can better desalinization systems solve the drinking water issues?  Those would be legitimate "carbon offset" targets.

The outfit behind this press release is EcoVentura and their Galapagos reservation people at Galapagos Network.

Vastness of the Cruise Industry

I was struck this week by the vastness and prosperity of the cruise industry.

I have been following cruising for some time and have a dozen cruise articles on www.fostertravel.com if you select Menu of 200 Destinations, then Worldwide, and then Cruising.

Yet the robust growth of this aspect of travel continues to astound me.

I received this week the annual book on cruising put out by the Cruise Lines International Association, whose 24 members represent 97 percent of the cruise capacity in North America.

Their website, incidentally, has a major consumer information component, so if you are interested in cruising, become aware of www.cruising.org.

An overview of where cruising is going is just amazing:

-This is the fastest growing element of the travel industry.  About 500,000 people took a cruise in 1970.  More than 12 million cruised in 2006, and the 2007 estimate is 12.5 million.

-The cruise industry's economic benefit to the US economy was estimated at $35.7 billion in 2006.

-The number of new ships continues to grow, reflecting an optimism about the future.  Nearly 40 ships were built in the 1980s, nearly 80 in the 1990s, and roughly 100 new ships will have been introduced since 2000 by the end of 2007.

-What the cruise ship experience is continues to become more diversified.  Though there are mega-ships, there are also many new small niche ships, such as those focused on nature.  Cruising now means more ports of call than ever before.  Your cruise ship may now have wifi, a rock climbing wall, multiple themed restaurants, and all the spa and fitness amenities imaginable.

-No one seems to thing the audience has been exhausted.  Only about 17 percent of US adults have taken a cruise.

-The average cruiser is now 49 years of age, down from the stereotype "older" market of the past.  Average household income of cruisers is $104,000, a dramatic figure in itself.  Florida, California, and Texas are the big three states for cruise patrons.

-Another amazing aspect of cruising is that about 90 percent are booked through travel agents.  In fact, cruise bookings account for more than half of all the vacation sales income for travel agents.  As travel agents struggle to survive in the new economy, cruise sales have been their salvation, as other sectors work directly with consumers and bypass the travel agent.

I've cruised on some big ships in the Caribbean, where the ship was the destination.  I've also cruised with small ships in Alaska, where getting close to humpback whales was the main point.  I've even cruised down the Yangtze to experience China.  You can see this in my write-ups on www.fostertravel.com.  The diversity of the cruise experience in 2007 provides an option for almost every taste.

Michael Frome, Conservationist

On a few occasions in the past, while at major gatherings of travel journalists, I have been in the presence of Michael Frome, the noted conservationist.  I always sensed that he was a man of substance in shaping the American environmental landscape, but didn't know too much about him.

Recently, however, I became aware of two of his books, HEAL THE EARTH, HEAL THE SOUL (Bartram Books, Milwaukee) and REBEL ON THE ROAD (Truman State University Press).

Looking at these books is an inspirational read.

Frome returns again and again the central theme of his journalistic life--that he could never be just an "objective" journalist, that becoming an advocate for wilderness, national parks, and conservation was his calling.

In the HEAL THE EARTH book there are affectionate portraits that Frome has penned over the years to the great pioneers in the American environmental movement.  To those of us who did not know these personalities, their life stories are intriguing.

There is a lot to learn in these pages.  Though I grew up in Minnesota, for example, I didn't know that Hubert Humphrey was an author of the original Wilderness Act.

Frome has been around longer than most of us, thriving now at age 86 in Wisconsin.  It is touching to read of his plane ride as a WWII -era airman across the Amazon, when that area was indeed a trackless wilderness. 

Frome knew the politics and the players, large and small, in the developing American environmental movement.

Early on, Frome took to heart Thoreau's comment, "In wilderness is the preservation of the world."  After internalizing those comments, there was no allowance for mere dispassionate reporting on the American great outdoors.  Frome became the advocate.  He always had opinions, and editors hired or fired him on that basis.

The REBEL ON THE ROAD book is more of an autobiography, just as the HEAL THE EARTH is more of a collection of philosophical reflections.

The subtitle for REBEL ON THE ROAD says it all:  WHY I WAS NEVER NEUTRAL.

If you seek an engaging look at the philosophical writings and life story of one of the great American conservationists, pick up these two books by Michael Frome.