At current estimates, there are close to 9 billion (that’s 9,000 million) and all of these people need food and shelter, not to mention clothing, transport and the many other things people use in the modern world. Every single material used to feed and clothe the world comes from the ground and while we have been seriously plundering the planet’s resources since the start of the industrial Revolution, all resources are finite and won’t last forever. Add to that the millions of tons of CO2 we pump into the atmosphere every year and you begin to get the picture; carbon emissions around the world are causing temperatures to rise and if we hit a rise of 1.5 degrees centigrade, scientists believe that will start a chain reaction, which is irrecoverable.
The Importance of sustainable societies
One thing we can do is educate our children about sustainability; it isn’t their fault that they have been handed a huge problem, the result of centuries of plundering the planet. What we do need is for the next generation to have a clear understanding of the many obstacles to a green future, plus they should know how to live in a sustainable way.
Eco-friendly sustainable school travel
There are providers of eco-friendly expedition tours for schools, where the focus is on sustainable travel; the students calculate the emissions their trip will generate, then with the help of the trainer, they find ways to recuse those emissions until they reach a point called ‘climate positive’, when the expedition actually reduces the impact on the planet. It might be fine for these billionaires to fly around the world in their private jet telling us all that carbon emission must be drastically reduced. Oh the irony! Their global travel creates more emissions; therefore, they are part of the problem, not the solution. Sustainable school travel gives the students the tools to calculate carbon emissions, regardless of the form of transportation, road, rail, sea and air.
Southeast Asia
Using Thailand as a base, the sustainable school travel operator can access most Southeast Asian countries, such as:
- Thailand
- Cambodia
- Laos
- Myanmar
- Indonesia
- Malaysia
- Vietnam
All students are fully insured when on a sustainable travel trip, with a team of dedicated trainers who know how to engage with teenagers. A hands-on approach ensures that students can implement projects; they even manage and plan the logistics of the expedition, guided by an instructor, who plays the role of a facilitator, rather than a teacher. France is one European country with sustainable expeditions, as are other European destinations.
The students work in groups with local eco-friendly initiatives, which might be marine or wildlife preservation, with tree-planting, which is an integral part of every expedition (minimum of 5 trees planted per student). This rich experience broadens the student’s horizon and educates them about grass-roots sustainability; knowledge that they can build on and share with others.
Sustainable travel is an integral part of helping the next generation understand and implement sustainable practices and your child will come home with a different perspective of the world.