RE: New research has found tourism to be much worse for the climate than previous anticipated, and estimates it to be responsible for 8 % of the global greenhouse gas emissions
Thanks for this inspirational post, @valth. The carbon footprint left by the means of transport is undoubtedly a problem but for people who love traveling (like me), it is something that is pretty hard to influence. On the other hand, the amount of trash produced and damage to wildlife and ecosystems we cause in places we visit is what everyone can decide through their behaviour. I can say that in the Caribbean were I lived for some time, it is mainly the expats who organize beach clean-ups, educate the locals about environmentalism etc. I heard the same goes for tropical destinations in SE Asia. It is practically impossible to get to places like these without the airplane but to me, the most important thing is how people behave and what they do once they get there.
Yeah, it's unfortunate that we "regular people" are pretty much powerless when it comes to the carbon footprint from the transportation. We can't really do much other than to hope that someone improves the technology to make is less heavy on the environment.
But you're right: once we are at our location we can do stuff to make it better in terms of pollution and emission. A lot of people are very irresponsible when it comes to recycling when visiting other countries, and this is certainly not good for anyone.