Plane speaking
I took 36 flights last year.
That was probably a few too many. It feels strange now to sit in a chair without a lifejacket fixed underneath it. In my head, city names are reduced to three-letter codes, and I have the regulations for Duty Free permanently imprinted on the insides of my eyelids. In the previous twelve months, I even met my girlfriend on an aeroplane, and helped win a major contract for, yes, an inflight magazine. When I landed at Gatwick in December, the man at Passport Control asked me where I had flown from. I couldn't remember the correct answer.
My airborne 2006 in numbers:
The cheapest flight cost €13.49 (incl. taxes, Barcelona to London Stansted); the most expensive was 1,022.72 Turkish New Lira (Istanbul-Heathrow on Business Class).
The longest journey was LHR-BOS, the shortest MAD-BCN.
The most obscure airline travelled on was probably a tie between Flyglobespan and transavia.com.
The most pleasant experience was the Turkish Airlines lounge in Ataturk Airport.
The least pleasant experience was security control at Boston Airport. When I asked where the approved small bags for liquids could be obtained, the security guard replied that it was not their problem, maybe the airport had run out, and that one of the shops somewhere in the airport might sell them. No, they didn't know which one. Either way, if I wanted to catch my flight, yes, I would have to discard my toothpaste. I was given a comprehensive frisk and five-minute bag search for asking.
Several of my trips were one-night-only.
Two flights were booked but not taken.
Twenty-two flights were for business; four included some element of work, eight were pleasure/family only.
And, in all that flying, and several long train journeys on top of that, I only visited six different countries. When people ask where I live, the answer I now give is "in Transit".
All of this travelling has a cost, and not just in extortionate airport wifi. Which is why the latest accessory for airbourne folk like myself is a "get out of guilt free" card, allowing me to offset my extensive carbon emissions with lovely green trees and huge white spinning renewables. The problem is that, with just a little careful research, the certainty of offsetting unravels faster than a sweater thread tied to a wind farm.
Most 'offset your flights' websites refuse to give you any information concerning their origins or backgrounds. Some are indeed profit-making. (I can't help feeling that my next 419 email will be asking for my help to release $38m to plant trees in Nigeria. In fact, I might even write it myself.)
Unfortunately, the offsetting websites can't even agree how much carbon I'm emitting. I asked each of the following how much carbon was produced on a return flight between Madrid Barajas and London Gatwick:
carbonneutral.com - 0.4 tonnes
www.sustainabletravelinternational.org - 0.48 tonnes
carboncounter.org - 0.33 tonnes
climatefriendly.com - 0.78 tonnes
climatecare.org - 0.28 tonnes
The amount of money I should pay, in order to plant forests that almost certainly won't make be carbon-sucking for several years, varies too. There are plenty of sceptics in this field; it seems that regulation may finally be announced this Thursday, although that will do nothing to rebut those studies suggesting that planting rainforest may even make things worse. What's a frequent flyer to do?
I don't question that I have a negative environmental impact. I am far from carbon neutral, and the only thing more wasteful than my lifestyle is the landfill of my good intentions. But online offset schemes, with their carbon confessionals and instant indulgences, don't seem to be the best way of doing things. So what is?
Some research later, and I think I've discovered what I'm after: the Green Alliance. They're a cross-party British environmental lobbying group that works with all the big boys - Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF-UK, and, impressively, BP and Shell - to promote fresh environmental thinking, and to stimulate debate. They work with politicians of all flavours, and offer workable solutions that are sometimes even adopted.
In other words, they do the thinking, researching, debating and lobbying so that we don't have to. Or rather, so that we can get involved too. I'm liking what I read so far, enough to give them a year's membership (also impressive for openness: there's a complete list of their members here). I'm keen see what their magazine has to say, and if/how we can actually make a difference through discussion and political pressure, rather than paying websites to hand cash out to industrial forestry companies, with no guarantee that they'll even be looked after. What I like most is that the GA encourages debate not only in the political sphere, but also beyond, in big business and in people's lives as well, albeit on a smaller, more low-key scale to environmental activists. We'll see, over the next few months, how they match up to my hopes.
Cheap flights didn't bring me to Spain (I took the train, in fact) but they, together with fast internet, are what keep me both here and in work. I am very much a freelancer of the new century; had I been five years older, I'd probably have chained myself to London's mortgage ladder, only leaving the city for weekend breaks and stag parties. Instead, it's email, internet and occasional meetings around Europe that make my lifestyle economically sustainable. But probably not environmentally sustainable.
The last twelve months have been a long line of x-ray machines and uncomfortable seating. This year doesn't promise to be too different (eight flights booked for the next eight weeks, including one to Australia).
I want to be able to continue working as I do. I want to be able to get to the UK and back without having to take two days, and several hundred pounds each way to do so. I want to live in Spain, and still go to my friends' weddings in the UK. And I want the planet's breathable atmosphere to survive past my grandkids.
I'm hoping that the Green Alliance will work on explaining how all of this will be possible, and that they'll persuade the people who matter to take the steps that matter.
Like many people, the major personal sacrifices required to act on the precautionary principle aren't ones I'm prepared to make right now. By the same token, offsetting my guilt via paypal to a fly-by-night (pun intended) isn't a solution either.
I want to get informed, I want to take part in the more realistic end of the debate, and, through my membership of the Green Alliance, I want to get closer to the people who really can change the world - or rather, can stop it changing so quickly.
Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride home.