Sustainable Farming Wine Tours (In California, of course!)

by Neil Woodburn on

Here’s a nice little responsible twist to the wine tasting industry.

Oenophiles interested in protecting the environment while polluting their own can now tour wineries that practice sustainable agriculture.

Sustainable Vine Wine Tours, based in Santa Barbara, California whisks guests throughout the Santa Ynez Valley visiting responsible wineries and socially conscious viticulturalists. There’s plenty of product sampling, of course, and opportunity to try out some very fine wines that aren’t produced at the expense of the planet.

This, of course, now makes getting drunk a socially responsible activity. Cheers!

Is Travel Inherently Bad for the Planet?

by Iva Skoch on

I have a problem with having to buy bottled water when traveling to some countries. At home, I always try to drink tap water since bottled water is becoming such a burden on the environment, but I don’t see how to get around it in China or Egypt, for example. Is there? I don’t think those pumps are a way to go…

I have to admit, sometimes I get a mild form of travel-phobia. As much as I am addicted to it, I wonder if traveling is actually good for us. Yes, through traveling we become more cosmopolitan, open-minded and all that. At the same time, with so many people traveling and globalization, places are becoming so uniform. Cafes in Europe often seem like museums of lifestyle than an indication of real lifestyle. No matter how much ones tries not to “ruin it”, every traveler leaves a mark. Speaking of marks, there is also the carbon footprint we leave, as Neil points out. All in all, traveling seems a little self-serving sometimes. What a depressing thought…

Eco-tourism in Laos

by Martha Edwards on

According to the Lonely Planet, tourism in Laos is set to soar to all-time highs. I suspect this has to do with the popularity of Thailand as a tourist destination, as people tend to reason that if they’re going all that way they should do the whole shebang. I don’t know if anyone travels across the ocean for the sole purpose of visiting Laos, but it sure is worthy of it’s own trip — which you already know, if you’ve ever been there.

Jungle treks in particular are expected to flourish, which gives some valuable income to to the country and its people — hopefully it keeps the forest from being levelled as well. The Laotian government has shown it’s commitment to Eco-tourism, so let’s hope they stand by their word.
Laos is truly unique place — rugged and undeveloped, friendly and peaceful, full of beauty, both urban and natural. It’s a world away from the bright lights of Bangkok. When I first arrived in Laos, I was amazed by so much, but what stands out is the lack of streetlights in towns (or paved roads for that matter.) We left the Indian restaurant at 9, a full two hours before the country-wide curfew, and hardly found our way back to the guesthouse because of the darkness. I was a city girl who hadn’t realized that the world got that dark at night. I wonder if it will stay like that? I hope so. We all need little reminders like that.

China Surpasses the U.S. in Carbon Dioxide Emissions

by Iva Skoch on

Well, it happened much, much sooner than expected: China’s emissions of carbon dioxide surpassed that of the U.S. in total weight of emissions.

This wasn’t supposed to happen so soon. (In fact, a World Resources Institute website from last year, predicted it would happen in 2009.) Moreover, China might surpass the U.S. in total greenhouse gasses in 2009.

Now, admittedly, this doesn’t relate directly to travel. But travelers are usually interested in one or both of two things: cultures and nature, and this issue affects them both.

It’s worth revisiting our blogging on this issue. We’ve dealt with carbon footprints of flying, both here and here. And we’ve told you about your carbon footprint for travel and even stuff changes in places you can visit, like sunscreens for glaciers. We owe it to ourselves and other travelers to be knowledgeable about this and consider these issues.

Not to be too sappy, but it’s never a bad time for some John Muir-like reflection, fellow travelers: “Most people are on the world, not in it; have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them, undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.”

Is Travel Causing the Planet’s Demise?

by Jamie Rhein on

Is travel ruining the environment? John Rosenthal in his article, “Is Traveling Destroying The Planet?” ponders the question.

I’m thinking back to years ago when I visited the Grand Canyon and had to compete with monstrous RVs for parking spots. But, then, there’s the time I caved to luxury on a trek in Nepal. Four days in, I paid for a hot bucket of water for a “shower.” Even though I had read that the wood burned to make the hot water was a deforestation project of sorts, I succumbed to the notion of “just this once.” I did make sure I relished extra hard the feeling of being clean. Besides, it was Christmas.

I’ve heard that hunters are among the biggest environmental champions because they know that if they don’t take care of their natural surroundings, they’ll lose their pastime. So, perhaps those of us who travel are more sensitive to the earth we walk on, rappel down, whitewater raft through, climb up, or buzz by in some form of transportation to get us from here to there.

If we didn’t travel, what then? Parts of India were in a panic after 9/11 because tourists weren’t coming. My mom, who visited us that December to January was the only person on her group tour to the Taj Mahal and Jaipur. She felt compelled to buy not one marble inlay table, but four, and loaded up her bag with marble inlay boxes for everyone she knew. She might have been the only customer for days.

Seeing the Amazon Rainforest, perhaps leads to us wanting to save it. India takes care of the tiger preserve Ranthambore National Park, that Erik Olsen wrote about in one of his Gadling posts, partly because it’s a money maker. When I visited Ranthanbore, one of the people piled onto one of the big trucks without a prayer of seeing a tiger, I bought a hat and gloves from someone in a village we passed since before sun up its wicked cold there. After our hotel dinner were the requisite traditional dancers for the evening entertainment. Each activity put money in people’s pockets.

In the US, tax money is funds national parks and forests. This is one of the reasons why the Wayne National Forest has ORV/ATV trails. People who can get far into the woods in an afternoon, particularly people who can’t walk that far, have some desire to protect it.

I do wonder about the space travel trend? Charles Simonye, an American tourist billionaire just returned from his two-week trip to a space station. At what point will it cost less than $25 million to take in a space station for summer vacation? Drop the price to even $10 million and several celebrities are in. How long before there are trips designed purely for tourism?

I don’t have any answers, but reading John Rosenthal’s article got me to ponder some more about thoughts that travel through my head when I’m traveling.