Good Deed Travel (Mexico here I come): Do-gooder journey with daughter in tow

by Jamie Rhein on

In a few hours, I am embarking on the kind of do-gooder journey Rick Steves is not too fond of. I’m heading to Mexico to build houses with my daughter and a gaggle of teenagers (and adult tag-a-longs like me) who hail from a mostly affluent suburb of Columbus. I don’t hail from this neighborhood, but the trip appealed to me for a couple of reasons.

My daughter is at the age where there is a fierce interplay between popular culture, peers and parents. Before she gets much further on this journey, I figure a dose of helping others couldn’t hurt. Plus, we spend most of our days busy. It’s easy to fall into a barking mode of “What did you eat for breakfast?” “Pick up your room,” and “Get off the phone.” She is a Houdini and could disappear for hours into her room if we let her.

The opportunity for the two of us to go on a trip without the two men in our lives (husband-dad, son-brother) was one to take. Sometimes it’s hard to justify a solo trip without a darned good reason. Helping out folks by building them a house seems like a good justification to head out of the country for a little while. Sharing an experience that I’m hoping we both carry with us, particularly through the next three years before she graduates from high school, is a huge plus.

As trips go, I don’t know what to expect with this one. I haven’t thought much further than spending time with my daughter, but only have a vague idea of what this might look like. We’re packed. Like Rick Steves, I wonder if this house building endeavor is a band-aid approach to the world’s woes at best, and a way for those of us who have more than most to not feel guilty about it. We can build a house in Mexico and feel better, but not have to change much once we return. Given my life at this point, this is about what I can do. I’ll keep my eyes open, though, and see what’s what. Considering that this is spring break for most of these teens, there are some who might have chosen something less physical than wielding a hammer while trying not to smash ones thumb. They could have headed to a beach in Cancun. I’ll let you know what I think about these do-gooder ways once the house is built.

How to date a huge ditch

by Aaron Hotfelder on

The journal Science reported earlier this month that the Grand Canyon is about 17 million years old– that’s three times older than previously thought. So why was there such a big change in the estimate?

Scientists discovered that they could date the uranium from formations called mammilary coatings [so-called because of their resemblance to breasts] which run along some of the canyon’s cave walls. Here’s Wired’s explanation:

“Mammilary coatings form on the walls of caves that are submerged just below the water table. As the Colorado River sliced deeper down into the Colorado Plateau, the water table gradually dropped. Mammilary coatings marked the river’s fall. And as mammilary coatings form, they also happen to trap a lot of uranium. By measuring their age, scientists can measure how long ago they were near the water table.”

Got that?

The highest caves in the canyon are estimated to be the oldest at about 17 million years old, which is quite logical when one remembers that the Colorado River carved the canyon from top to bottom. The newer caves further down are a youthful 800,000 years old.

And that’s how you date a huge ditch.

More here.

United Nations takes a stab at eco-friendly travel with Green Passport campaign

by Anna Brones on

With 900 million international travelers in 2007 alone, the strain of tourism on the environment is becoming more and more apparent. Travel has such an impact on the global climate that the United Nations launched its Green Passport campaign this past weekend at the Berlin Tourism fair. Intended to inform travelers on how to consciously plan and execute their holidays in the greenest way possible, Green Passport is the UN’s attempt at raising tourists’ awareness of how they can positively affect sustainable development through their travel choices.

Launched by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the internet-based campaign, available in English, French and Portuguese, will hopefully offset the effects that the growing industry has on the global environment. “By browsing the Green Passport web site consumers will be able to find practical tips to help them reduce their environmental and social footprint while they are on vacations. Tourists will discover that traveling green is not as hard as they imagined,” said Stefanos Fotiou, head of UNEP’s tourism unit.

The Green Passport website is designed to look fun and user-friendly, and you can even submit your own green travel tips. Browsing through the website it’s easy to see the UNEP did their travel homework, they have links to popular sites like Seat61 — the train traveler’s bible. But Green Passport isn’t just about greening your travel transportation, a large part of the program is focused on traveling responsibly. In other words, educating yourself about your destination and culture before going and while there, respecting the local population and customs.

My favorite quote from the online passport however, has to be this one: “And remember, when appropriate, balloons, horses, donkeys, sailboats and dog sleds are also transport solutions.” Never doubt the UN’s sense of humor.

Noflights.com: Travel without flying

by Abha Malpani on

I enjoy finding websites that represent businesses trying to make-money and help the world at the same time. My latest find is UK based Noflights.com, which as the name suggests, is about traveling without taking a flight.

The company has put together an expansive bundle of travel-itineraries for people who want environmentally conscious travel. From the UK, they have ready packages that, other than Europe, will take you to China, Russia, Morocco, and Turkey. You can travel by bus, train or boat and choose the type of holiday you want basis categories like: “big sky, mountains, lakes”, “6-hours from London”, “tracks less traveled” and “mix-it-up”. They will tailor-make your trip if you want, and if you are based outside the UK you can send them your details and they will sort something out for you.

They promise: “…the lowest price on the market for any of our hotel or holiday products. If you find a cheaper hotel or like for like holiday (either as a package or booked independently) from any other source, we’ll match it and give you £10 back for good measure,” and 10% of their surplus income will be donated to environmental justice campaigns.

Another interesting feature of the site: you can send in a travelogue of any sort and if they like it they will give you a discount or some reward for using it on their site.

The website looks new and has unsurprising issues of a new site: at the moment it does not have enough information uploaded and many links don’t click to anywhere; a bit of scouting around revealed that it launched only about a week ago. Nevertheless, worth checking out.

Australians worst at preserving wildlife

by Iva Skoch on

These statistics are pretty surprising, especially if you consider how much Australians love their animals.

Of all the mammal species that have become extinct in the past 200 years, nearly half are Australian, reports The New Zealand Herald. Since the British arrived, 27 mammals (about 10 percent of the total) have disappeared. Australians apparently have have the worst record on the planet for conserving their wildlife.

There seem to be several different reasons for this: land clearing, with the resulting habitat destruction, and a change in fire regimes – from the patchy, selective burnings carried out by Aborigines to today’s devastating bushfires. By far the worst harm has been done by the introduction of exotic predators, especially feral cats and foxes. Their impact has been compounded by the culling of dingoes, which otherwise keeps the cat and fox population down. Dingoes, however, have been virtually eliminated in sheep-raising areas.

Species already lost include: the lesser bilby, a delicate marsupial that burrowed in desert sand dunes and the pig-footed bandicoot, which looked like a miniature horse.