New research has found tourism to be much worse for the climate than previous anticipated, and estimates it to be responsible for 8 % of the global greenhouse gas emissions

We all know that airplanes and traveling in general is bad for the environment, but have you ever considered just how much a week of vacation in another country actually affects the climate? I bet you haven’t, and neither have most people, but luckily a group of scientists have been crunching the numbers to find out exactly how much it affects the climate!

I won’t lie: I would love to spend a few days on this beach! But it might not be so good for the climate. Image is posted with CC0.

There have been many attempts done by scientists in order to try to estimate the amount of emission released by tourism in the past, but as you can except, there are hundreds or even thousands of different factors that are needed to be measured in order to make a good estimation. However, most studies have ended up with a number between 2.5 and 3 % of the global greenhouse gas emission, which is what most people have gotten used to thinking of.

A brand new study decided to look at the numbers again, and claim to have been more thorough than any research before. By estimating all emissions released from the moment the person leaves their house, until they return back home, they claim to have the most accurate numbers, and the research was just published in Nature Climate Change. Their numbers put the same emissions at 8 %, meaning that it’s almost 3 times higher than any previous estimation!

The author told CNN that the primary reason why their number was so much higher was because they calculated a lot more details than any other studies have done, including products the tourists buy during the vacation, and the food they eat during their stay.

If you prefer real numbers instead of percentages; the total amount of greenhouse gases released by the tourism sector is between 3.9 and 4.5 GtCO2e. To break that unit down a bit, Gt means gigatonne, and is equivalent to 1 trillion kg. CO2 is carbon dioxide, a gas that we tend to measure when measuring greenhouse gas emissions. The final e is short for equivalent, and it means that the number is measured in equivalents of carbon dioxide. The reason for this is that 1kg of methane (CH4) or many of the other greenhouse gases are much more potent than carbon dioxide, so we calculate them all over to how many kilograms of carbon dioxide they are worth.

Which countries are responsible?

The study also tried to pinpoint which countries were most responsible for the emissions caused by the tourism sector, and there are really no big surprises here. The US is the biggest polluter, followed by China, Germany and India. The numbers are not accounted for how many people who live in each country, so Germany should try to reduce their numbers a bit, seeing as they pollute more in other countries than all of the tourists from India combined!

A tourist. Image by Garrote88, posted with the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Is it possible to travel or go on a vacation without harming the climate?

It seems like it is very difficult to be traveling or going on vacation in other countries without harming the environment, but there are of course some things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.

Firstly, know what causes the most damage! Flying an airplane is without a doubt one of the worst things you can do if you don’t want to cause further climate change, but traveling far by car or any other transportation that requires fuel is also pretty bad. Basically a vacation not too far away from home is the best choice for the environment.

Image is posted as CC0.

The two other significant contributors according to the same study is shopping and food. As for shopping, don’t buy stupid stuff that you end up throwing away, and try not to eat huge plates of meat every single day during your vacation.

There are of course many small things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint when you are a tourist, but the three points above are the biggest problems, and the ones you should focus on being aware of during your next trip.

Thanks for reading

Thanks for checking out my post about how much emissions are caused by tourists! As you might know, I believe we should all do our best in reducing our carbon footprint, and it seems like reducing our traveling might be a good way to prevent the world from getting even hotter.

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