Beyond Flying

It is perhaps surprising to learn that only 5% of the world population has flown, when nearly every reader of this publication will be a regular flyer. The impact of travel on climate change has given many people pause for thought and encouraged minimising or giving up air travel altogether. Developments in communications make this easier so far as meetings and conferences are concerned, and in one of the contributions we learn that all four finalists for an environmental award in California had refused to travel, so their presentations took place by Skype. Airline companies enjoy subsidies on fuel, which should really be removed to reflect the true cost of flying - even so, fuel surcharges are now commonplace since the rise in oil prices. It is easy to calculate one's carbon footprint and the contribution that air travel makes to this. For my part, I go to London by train whenever possible but I can't say that I have thought systematically about this, which this book encourages readers to do. Susan Krumdieck describes a Signs of Change teleconference in which 250 delegates were hosted at seven venues. The third part consists a series of essays describing various epic journeys such as going by bicycle to Beijing, walking from England to Turkey, and even travelling overland from Australia to a UN climate conference in Poland. One common experience is the hospitality of strangers when undertaking journeys of this kind, which I myself experienced as a student walking in France - I was taken in one evening by a peasant family (I always say I am Scottish when in France) and given a delicious meal rounded off with Eau de Vie de Mirabelle 1938. Readers glean recommendations about how to fly less as well as enhancing their travel experience.