Has green travel as conceptualized today become narrow minded, shallow and embarrassingly self-congratulatory?
Photo by murti utami
Over the last year, we have seen an incredible upsurge in ability to purchase anything and everything “green.”
The travel industry is not immune to the green phenomenon. Travelers are now urged to take photographs instead of souvenirs, to eat local, and of course, to offset the environmental impact of their cross-continental trip with carbon credits.
But are these efforts really making a difference? Or has green travel as conceptualized today become narrow minded, shallow and embarrassingly self-congratulatory?
It’s about time we ask ourselves what “green travel” really entails, and what it might mean to start traveling in a way that is healthy for people and the planet.
Right now, too many ‘green travelers’ are just missing the point.
A Visit To Paradise
While the refuge looks great on paper, the rules that govern it aren’t enforced effectively.
During my first trip to uber-green Costa Rica, I did all the things that a good environmentalist does. I bought local produce, stayed at a sustainable hotel, and visited the wildlife refuges.
As I got to know the area better, the story became more complex. There’s an oft-touted 200-meter wildlife refuge on the Costa Rican coast.
From a biological standpoint, the refuge is a success story. It protects the nesting sites of the Olive Ridley turtle, and is important habitat for monkeys and iguanas.
But while the refuge looks great on paper, the rules that govern it aren’t enforced effectively.
People aren’t technically allowed to inhabit the reserve, yet concrete homes dot the protected area, connected by an informal network of roads that lack a septic system, building codes, running water or electricity.
This shoddy construction damages the biological environment, and the refuge shanty-town is now a notorious area to buy drugs.
The Green Dilemma
As an environmentalist, this is where my moral compass starts to go awry.
Squatting in a wildlife reserve is illegal, and so technically the people who live there must be evicted. However, rapid development that caters to wealthy North Americans has raised the cost of land in the area.
At the same time, the Americans who have moved to the area permanently or semi-permanently have improved the local schools, the quality and availability of health care, and started a program where you can donate your old surfboards to the local kids.
Some of the people in the refuge shanty-town have lived there since before the land was protected, and keep their houses freshly painted. Others deal crack.
But who am I to go to San Jose and lobby the Ministry of the Environment and Energy to evict the crack dealing squatters? Didn’t I go on vacation to relax? Can’t I just purchase some carbon credits and move on to the next beach?
Not So Easy Being Green
Photo by namida-k
Unfortunately, I think that there is a fundamental tension in the very concept of “green travel“.
Despite the plethora of perky headlines that read, “It’s easy being green,” anyone involved in environmental policy or environmental activism knows that living green isn’t easy.
Green means asking complex questions about what is right, and these questions get increasingly challenging in the context of an unfamiliar culture.
Plus, travel is about movement, which means you visit somewhere and then leave. Better travelers are environmentally and socially responsible, and make a genuine effort to learn about and appreciate the area they visit.
Some saintly folks volunteer on their vacations and make long-lasting changes to the area. At the same time, I have heard people talk disparagingly about volunteering overseas, arguing that it is another form of American imperialism.
One way or another, you won’t convince me that I’m improving the lives of sea turtles or Costa Ricans by buying a cute secondhand suitcase for my trip.
Finding A Balance
The problem with green travel as conceptualized today is that it seemingly absolves us from the important responsibility of deep engagement with sticky, morally ambiguous environmental issues.
Our actions all contribute to the same collective environmental whole.
We book a sustainable hotel with just a few extra clicks of the mouse, offset our carbon output when we pay for our rental car, buy a locally made figurine to bring home to Aunt Betty, and voila!
We’re given a get-out-of-jail free card. Our guilt has been offset.
But perhaps travel itself offers the best lesson here. Travel makes us see what we, the human species, are doing on a larger scale. It helps put both the high-impact Western lifestyles of the global elite and the lifestyles of the rural poor in perspective.
For example, if a large Costa Rican family is unable to buy land and is living in a wildlife refuge where they burn their own trash, I shouldn’t glorify my own eco-sainthood and look down my nose at them.
Our actions all contribute to the same collective environmental whole.
It’s not that there’s anything wrong with making efforts to be green in our own individual lives, but we just need to be realistic about the actual impact or our behavior.
A Call To Action
So what’s a traveler with a conscience to do? Maybe we should visit fewer places, and sink more deeply into a place when we’re there.
We can read books about our destination that aren’t guidebooks. We can talk to local people. We can buy local products while traveling.
We can think about what it might take to positively impact a certain place in the long term, and perhaps commit to taking some action when we get home.
But be forewarned- when you actually dig into the environmental politics of an area, what green means gets more challenging.
Challenges like those presented by the Costa Rican wildlife refuge require humane and ethical solutions. In the end, travelers must act locally to help solve a global problem.
What do you think of green travel as it’s preached today? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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14 Comments... join the discussion!
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Wow. Fascinating stuff and a variety of well-thought out, personal angles. The Costa Rican part exemplifies to me that “being green” seems to be game of money–people who can’t afford proper land/food/garbage disposal will sh*t in the street, cut down any trees they want, and kill anything that might be food…regardless of it’s status on the endangered species list or their violation of government regulations.
I’m beginning to get the impression that being “green” is–at its very core–nothing but a self-congratulatory and narrow minded philosophy, regardless of where and how it may be applied. I may voluntarily choose to have a “lower impact” lifestyle, but if that decision threatens the health and welfare me and/or my brood…well, I’m sure that’s a question we can present to the squatters.
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The idea to immerse yourself in one place, rather than hopscotching around the planet is excellent. As Americans we have already made the mistakes, actually continue to make them, and then go overseas to assuage our guilt and, in the worse case scenario, preach a “green” message to people and countries basically doing what the States have done for decades.
As a resource professional in outback places of the West, I learned first hand about local’s scepticism of strangers coming in to “do good” environmentally. The first and best thing anyone with a pure conservation conscience can do, either home or abroad, is listen to the people who make a place home.There will be no shift in thought or action unless it is co-operative.
A great story about how this can work is Hemata Mishra’s execellent memoir about trying to save the one horned rhinocerous in his homeland, Nepal, The Soul of the Rhino.He tells the tale from the perspective of a highly regarded wildlife professional wanting to save an endangered species. His science and global perspective often comes in conflict with his cultural roots.
The ebbs and flows of conservation are at times exhilarating and often heartbreaking. There is no getting around it. But as a second generation ecologist and lifelong environmentalist, I believe just the fact people encompass an environmental perspective in their travel plans is a good start.
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Jacob said:
“I’m beginning to get the impression that being “green†is–at its very core–nothing but a self-congratulatory and narrow minded philosophy, regardless of where and how it may be applied.”
No. I vehemently disagree.
“Green” may be a buzzword, but linguistically it’s not fatally damaged. Unlike the word “People” for instance, the meaning of “Green” hasn’t been totally usurped by the military-industrial PR machine yet.
Being green is necessary for human health and happiness. For many, it demands a fundamental lifestyle shift – away from grasping consumerism, stressful jobs and addictions to drugs and processed food, and towards slow, grateful and organic lifestyles focused on family and community.
This is what “green” means. As long as we defend that meaning, we’re good to go.
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Great comment, Chrysser, thanks for sharing that thought!
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Thanks, Tim, Chrystine, and Jacob, for your thoughts. Tim, I’d like to hear more about the marketing component of green travel. Jacob, I have to respectfully disagree that all green impulses are shallow, because it’s up to us to give them depth, keep them grounded, and to look outside of the box for solutions. And Chrystine, that’s a great point about listening to the people who live in a place to be able to make effective change. You also seem to have a deep understanding of the rewards and challenges of working in the environmental sector. And yes, we have to accept that consciousness will change in small steps. My only worry is that while “eco” is so trendy now, doesn’t everything that’s trendy eventually become outdated?
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Fantastic article, and all the more so because you include tips that are practical AND philosophical without being overly simplistic or concluding that there are no steps to take.
I totally agree- sinking yourself into a culture as deeply as possible is the only way to understand the complex underpinnings of any phenomenon, especially one as complicated as the intersection of economics and place.
To your call to action list, I’d add forging relationships with locals over food. Someone on Matador’s forums posted the link http://www.dinewithlocals.com that intrigued me. I haven’t checked it out, but I can definitely say that when my husband and I lived in Puerto Rico and he offered his services as a private chef to tourists and travelers who wanted to experience PR by eating in someone’s home, this was an amazing way not only to connect with people, but to learn lots about the history, culture, and current events and conflicts of places. Our guests learned lots from us, but we also learned so much from them– people from Canada, the US, and all over the world. I’d like to think that they left with a broader vision of Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, and the effects of colonialism, and that we were left with a desire to learn more about the places they were from. While not “green” in the strictly environmental sense, how could we ever extricate the challenges and joy’s of people’s lives from the physical places they inhabit?
And if we could, why would we want to?↵ -
I do not know about the Costa Rican refuge you mentioned but I do know that in other countries eco-tourism has helped to encourage and support traditional land use. It has allowed farmers to farm in sustainable ways that had previously been discouraged by governments encouraging Western single crop styles of farming.
I agree the issues are complex and the local people must be part of the solution and must be provided with opportunities as part of long term sustainable solutions.
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Hi Alice! Thanks for your comment, and I wholeheartedly agree that reserves and eco-tourism are important! Single-crop banana farming has damaged eastern Costa Rica irrevocably. I simply have problems with the idea that green travel is as easy as swiping a credit card.
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Jenn- Very thought provoking post. I think that Green Travel is an often over used word today, but every journey begins with a single step. And quite frankly, every small step each individual takes to even think more about their impact is a step in the right direction. I think “greenwashing” is becoming all too common. I recently investigated “green hotels” and found that many websites that claim to list environmentally friendly hotels are actually just membership directories where nearly any hotel can pay to be listed there. (If your curious about this take a deeper look at some of the green hotel directories’ membership discusstions. http://gogreentravelgreen.com/green-hotels-green-accommodation/finding-environmentally-friendly-hotels-through-green-accreditation-directories/ )
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Great article Jenn. Very insightful.
And I do agree with Elizabeth – “every journey begins within a single step”.
While we may perceive ourselves to be progressive in terms of slow travel and overall environmental consciousness, we represent a small fraction of worldwide travelers.
Every little bit counts.
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I think we need to make a clear distinction between ‘green’ travel and ‘low carbon’ carbon travel. The best way to confront the challenge of climate change is to calculate and reduce our individual carbon footprints. In the UK at least it’s becoming clear that offsetting is not a sustainable answer, and is more about getting rid of guilt than somehow compensating for the pollution (as we know, it’s not possible to remove CO2 from the atmosphere once it’s there).
I’ve started a website about how to travel without flying – http://www.loco2.co.uk – and soon we’ll be launching the slow travel manifesto at http://www.slowtravel.org.uk along with Ed from http://www.lowcarbontravel.com.
My personal opinion is that social, and even local environmental problems, will never be completely solved, but that we seriously have to do something about the global problem of climate change simply to ensure the survival of our race. That’s why I don’t fly, and that’s why I seek truly low carbon alternatives as I satisfy my natural desire to learn about global culture.
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Jamie, I’ve just had a look at your site and look forward to more.
Would also like to point people to the Green Guides David Miller is publishing over at BNT’s sister site, thetravelersnotebook.com.
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Lola’s right. Buying carbon offsets is better than doing nothing at all to help the planet. Small steps. As for volunteer vacations, often it’s the traveler who receives the greatest benefit – in seeing the world with new eyes, in being changed for good by an unforgettable experience. It’s all good. No need for cynicism, yet constant challenge is good.
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