Ever felt guilty for flying to your vacation because of all those carbon emissions your plane is pumping out? Unless you're Australian, there's no need. According to a recent Sydney Morning Herald opinion, because Australia's so far away from pretty much everywhere, and because Australians really love to travel, then Aussies who fly to Europe or America are really doing a pile of damage to the planet.

Scoffing Aussies might be sobered by this fact: A Sydney to London return trip emits about 9 tons of carbon dioxide per passenger, which is the same amount this passenger would use in two years of eating, driving, heating and air-conditioning at home.

Add to this the fact that you always bump into Australians wherever you travel overseas--they really are everywhere--and you can see the problem. Do Aussies have to start staying home now? Maybe. But wouldn't the bottom drop out of the global beer market if traveling Aussies weren't there to prop it up?

Related Stories:
· Are Australian Travel Junkies Destroying the Planet? [Wired]
· Globetrotting Boomers Fly in the Face of Carbon Reality [Sydney Morning Herald]
· World's Worst Tourists: Drunken Aussies on Japanese Slopes [Jaunted]

[Photo: :ray]]]> amandak 2008-08-20T09:33:13-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/6/9/82929/84209

Air New Zealand is getting so green it's gonna blend right in with the trees soon. Enabling domestic passengers to buy carbon credits is old news now, and that program's been extended to international guests now, too. The surcharge you pay gets directed into projects like the Tararua wind farm on New Zealand's north island.

Beyond carbon credits, Air NZ has been carefully optimizing things like speed and weight with the goal of reducing their carbon emissions by 100,000 tons in five years--and they're doing so well they're ahead of schedule.

And now they plan to become the first airline in the world to test a biofuel made from the nut of an Indian plant, called jatropha. They'll test it later this year and already plan to be using it on 50 percent of domestic flights by 2013. Soon the carrier will have to paint all their aircraft green.

Related Stories:
· Air NZ Extends Carbon Offset Program [Business Traveller]
· Air New Zealand Turns Green [Jaunted]
· Carbon Offsets coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: PhillipC]]]> amandak 2008-06-09T09:30:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/4/3/55116/57229

The national carrier of Kiwi-land, Air New Zealand, has a few quirks that we like: patriotic playlists and competitions where they encourage politicians to pole dance.

But the latest Air NZ news is not quirky, but very green--and we like that too. Since last Thursday, Air New Zealand passengers have been able to buy carbon credits to offset the environmentally unfriendly effects of their journey.

Unfortunately the carbon offsets are only available to domestic passengers at the moment, but later this year will be rolled out for international passengers too. As an example, the offset for an Auckland to Los Angeles flight would cost around $70, in order to make up for the 2.9 tons of CO2 your share of the flight emits. Discounts available if you exhale less, of course.

Related Stories:
· Air New Zealand Offers Carbon Offsets [MSNBC]
· Air New Zealand Coverage [Jaunted]
· Green Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: PhillipC]]]> amandak 2008-04-03T09:00:01-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/