By Bill McGuire – McGuire is Professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards at University College London and author of “Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant’s Guide.”
Excerpts: “Maybe we should take a lesson from the pandemic, when staycations were pretty much enforced…
The extreme weather conditions across southern Europe this summer are a wake-up call — a reminder that not even our vacations are insulated from the growing consequences of global heating.
Vacations need to return to their roots, or at least move in that direction. In particular, holidays abroad need to be decoupled from flying, which means — as far as Europe is concerned — train, car or coach.
There are issues, of course. A just-published Greenpeace analysis revealed that travelling by train around Europe is, on average, four times more expensive than flying. Travelling by road takes longer, and is likely to involve hours of frustrating queueing at ports.
But on the plus side, the journey itself becomes part of the holiday. Airport scrums and delays are avoided and, most importantly for the climate, carbon emissions are massively reduced.
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The familiarity and convenience of being close to home can bring its own contentment, comfort and well-being.
What’s more, we’ll be able sunbathe in the warm glow of knowing we have slashed the size of our carbon footprint — making us part of the solution rather than the problem.
