I know that flying on airplanes makes such a huge impact on my carbon footprint, but I love flying on planes and going on vacations. Am I the only one who has this problem? There's not really a way to stop this problem other than just not going on vacations far away.

I also face this problem and was wondering if anyone had any other ideas to make vacations more sustainable and efficient for the environment.

Very interesting, Maggie. I was wondering the same thing.

I don't know how to reduce my carbon footprint for vacations as well (need to research it). Maybe you could try to reduce your carbon footprint in other ways to balance it out?

Here's a resource I found- http://www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can … stainably/

It has some good advice such as:
Fly during the daytime, because studies have shown that flights taken at night have a greater impact on the climate.
Fly economy, because more people per plane means fewer emissions per person.
Pack light, because lighter planes mean less fuel is burned.
Purchase carbon offsets to account for the emissions from your flight.

for my family we go to 2-3 places when we go on a vacation and we fly to the first but then take a train or boat or drive to the next places and that helps with less flights.

I think a good way to go on vacations but not fly is to do long road trips to places.

Izzy's idea is a good one.  Also, many people like to "combine trips".  Like fitting in visiting family AND a vacation in one flight.  Everything helps.

Izzy,
Great point- GO ON TRAINS.  They are energy efficient- the emissions per passenger are nearly half that of cars.  Other environmental impacts are up to a tenth smaller on rail than on car.  In addition, studies have shown that they improve the quality of life in nearby towns.
-Diego

http://www.foe.co.uk/sites/default/file … better.pdf
http://www.ushsr.com/benefits/economic.html
https://www.aar.org/BackgroundPapers/En … 20Rail.pdf
http://gorail.org/rail-benefits/environment/

RESOURCES!!! YAYYY!!!!

For me I have to go on these airplane trips because of my baseball team like last year we went to Las Vegas and Colorado and this year we are going to California and Oregon and Maybe Canada.

I think that people should use trains for long distance travel. they are much more efficient and comfortable than cars or planes. However, there is very little competition in the train industry, and until there is, trains wont reach their full potential for travel.

Like just about all countries, we have a semi-nationalized system in the USA (Amtrak).  But unlike most other countries with successful rail, it is underfunded and the infrastructure is not suppported

While trains are a good choice for reducing carbon emissions when travelling a long distance, trains have limitations. They're significatly slower than planes, meaning that they're impractical for time-sensitive travel.

Trains cannot travel over seas, either. The alternative would be boats, but they're even slower and emit more carbon over distance. (http://articles.boattrader.com/how-to-c … -minimize/ ). So, sometimes planes are necessary. (Note that I'm not saying that trains are pointless).

However, this article: (http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable- … ar-or-rail ) states that trains emit 70 grams of CO2 per kilometer per passenger, while most cars are around 100 grams of CO2 per kilometer per person. We can conclude that; while trains could be an option to reduce your carbon emissions, they aren't used widely enough or available to enough people. End of class, I'll elaborate on this later.

I feel flying on planes definitely emits the most carbon, but i think most of the time it is the most efficient way of traveling long distances. If you were flying somewhere maybe only a state away you could go by train or car, but for trips out of country there's not much you can do about it.

I really love to travel but now that I know this I feel bad because of how large my carbon footprint is. My transportation part of my carbon footprint was more than the average carbon footprint in Washington by itself.