Climate change is real, it’s man-made, and its effects are all around us. Travelers have begun to feel the pinch. This summer alone, the heat got so hot in France that the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower had to restrict their visiting hours. Rail services were suspended in France, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Wildfires broke out all over Europe, causing deteriorating air quality. And European river cruises have increasingly become bus tours as once-mighty rivers like the Rhine and the Danube are experiencing some of their lowest levels ever recorded.
This article in the New York Times talks about this, and more. How do travelers cope? They’re booking more travel during the shoulder seasons, and they’re increasingly looking towards Scandinavia instead of traditional hotspots (pun intended) like Spain and Italy.
Other travelers have mentioned 100-degree-plus days in familiar beach resorts like Cyprus, Albania, Italy, and the south of France.
What can you do? If your travel must occur during the northern hemisphere’s summer months, look at cooler destinations like Northern Europe, Alaska/Canada, or far south of the equator. Make sure your lodging includes air conditioning, and be prepared with backup plans if your planned outdoor activities cannot occur. And please: choose rail or bus over planes and cruise ships whenever possible. Bicycles and walking are even better! When booking flights, many now show the amount of carbon generated: generally, long-haul flights and nonstops create fewer carbon emissions than shorter flights and those that require changing planes. Hotels, too, will now often disclose if they’re LEED-certified or some informal measure of climate-friendly (although you’ll have to take those non-LEED claims with a grain of salt).
I used to contribute to purchasing carbon credits but learned that they’re often ineffective. I’ll have to dig into that in more detail for a future article. In the meantime, stay cool!