Jaunted

Environment

World's Worst Tourists: Aussies Recklessly Emit Carbon

August 20, 2008 at 9:33 AM | 0 Comments

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]