The Carbon Cost of Going Home for the Holidays

By Dawn Bickett

DC EcoWomen are making changes in their lives to reduce their impact on the environment every day. Recycling, composting, taking public transit, watching electric bills for energy inefficiencies, buying local, reducing meat consumption… the list goes on and on.

As you make your holiday travel plans, here are some things to keep in mind.

Planes, Trains, or Automobiles?

Buses, trains, and carpooling are all much more efficient than flight. Even driving alone can be better for the climate than flying. But if you need to go thousands of miles, these aren’t realistic options.

Offsets

One popular way to tackle this carbon conundrum that airlines themselves often tout, is to offset the carbon pollution of a plane trip. The idea behind carbon offsets is that you can make up for carbon pollution you are causing by funding a project that reduces carbon emissions somewhere else. Sounds great, right?

In theory, carbon offsets provide an excellent way to mitigate your environmental impact with little effort on your end. In practice, the situation is a bit more complicated. Many carbon offset programs either don’t offset as much carbon as they promise or have negative impacts, like displacing indigenous peoples. And a few are actually just scams.

Still, some carbon offset programs are successful ventures that do truly facilitate climate-saving projects, like this methane capture at a dairy farm in Wisconsin. If you are interested in purchasing offsets to balance out the carbon cost of a flight this season, be ready to sift through a lot of low quality programs in order to find a trustworthy one.

The Future of Flying

But we aren’t there yet. Unfortunately, the best way to reduce your transportation footprint this holiday season is simply not to travel. But don’t despair. Here’s a piece of good news to hold on to just in case you are reading this blog while crammed into a 747: the most efficient way to fly — if you have to — is on very full flights, in economy.

Happy holidays, however you are traveling!