06 November 2008

speaking of the land down under



In the last post, I told you about a way to win a trip to New Zealand. This Saturday I won't be heading to that magnificent land, but I'll be going very close... to Australia!

And while I'm psyched about seeing cuddly koalas and kangaroos, sitting on pristine beaches, and eating shrimp on the barbie, that's not the first thing I thought of when considering this trip. It's the enormous carbon footprint my flight will create. The round trip flight from NYC to Sydney is nearly 20,000 miles of travel, equivalent to about 4 tons of CO2 emissions. Yikes!

I'll definitely be buying some carbon offsets for this one. But I don't think that's enough. So I'm going to leave it up to you. What else can I do to make up for the carbon spewing flight?

Look for the survey, coming soon!

UPDATE:
Okay, I've added the poll at the top of the page. You can add other suggestions in the comments section.

During my stay in Oz, what should I do to make up for the flight's carbon spew?
  • Eat no meat for the entire trip
  • Buy only Australian made goods
  • Volunteer for a local environmental group
  • Other (add your own idea to comments)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you should,
* Buy only Australian made goods - except in emergency case...

* Volunteer for a local environmental group
- this is a good one, maybe you can even volunteer a day in Australia

And maybe...
You can plant a tree, or a few trees. Trees "breath in" carbon dioxide and "breath out" oxygen. This process is called "carbon sequestration"

Liz said...

I would like to volunteer for an Australian environmental group for a day. I'll have to find one that's looking for help for only one day!

I would love to plant trees, and was going to volunteer for this weekend's tree planting day in the city, but we're leaving on Saturday!

Pip Wilson said...

Welcome to Oz! The 'shrimp on the barbie' thing was invented by US advertisers. We do have barbecues (an idea we borrowed from Americans) but not shrimp. We have prawns, but in 55 years I have only seen them barbecued once -- by Brazilians. But I hope you have a ball in our country. We need more people like you.

Liz said...

Thanks, Pip!

I kind of figured 'shrimp on the barbie' was a bit cliche, along with the terrible Outback Steakhouse we have here in the states, which is really based in Florida.

I'm looking forward to some real Aussie cuisine!