Forecasters are starting to predict that in about 10 years time real travel will be largely replaced by virtual travel as the desire and need to be eco conscious alters travel as we know it. But how is this affecting travel today?
Two interesting developments come from a couple of notable airlines: Air Canada and Virgin. Air Canada who has been voted the best airline in North America, to the confusion of many of its' customers, has recently introduced a voluntary carbon offsetting program. This revolutionary program allows fliers to purchase a carbon credit add-on if their conscience leads them to do so. This additional fee is handled by ZeroFootprint a non-profit environmental organization that will take your 'donation' and use it to plant trees within British Columbia.
Another interesting development is that Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson has started a new venture, Virgin Green Fund, in an effort to seek to find and use renewable fuels that are economically feasible and environmentally friendly. The Virgin Green Fund was started with $400M in seed money and will continue to receive profits from both the Virgin Airline and train businesses over the next 10 years. I've read that the anticipated figure is an additional $3B of investment but heard Branson quote a figure of $10B while on Martha Stewart's show.
Maybe we'll still be able to fly in 10 years. Let's hope so, it's a big world out there.
Some carbon offset examples:
Vancouver, BC to London, UK - 1.6T of CO2 per flight - $25.60CDN
Vancouver, BC to Maui, HI - .9T of CO2 per flight - $14.40CDN
Vancouver, BC to Calgary, AB - .2T of CO2 per flight - $3.20CDN
1 comment:
Congrats to Al Gore for co-winning the Nobel Peace prize and for donating the prize money back to your cause.
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