Ready to rough it around the world with nothing but a guidebook and backpack? You want to broaden your worldview or help save a rainforest through an eco-adventure? 
Maybe you're determined not to be an obnoxious American in another culture. But hop on a plane and you're helping to warm the globe, as the next edition of your travel bible might warn you. The Guardian explains:
Mark Ellingham, the founder of Rough Guides, and Tony Wheeler, who created Lonely Planet after taking the hippie trail across Asia, want fellow travellers to "fly less and stay longer" and donate money to carbon offsetting schemes. From next month, warnings will appear in all new editions of their guides about the impact of flying on global warming alongside alternative ways of reaching certain destinations.
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They do not mind if their advice discourages people from travelling and hits sales of their books.
A 747 burns more than 3,300 gallons of fuel each hour at cruise speeds. Ironically, many of the same people who buy hybrids or use biofuel are also world travelers. Just wait 'til we have flying cars. Can you reverse the damage from the greenhouse gases dumped into the atmosphere when you fly?
The Climate Care calculator says that when I go from San Francisco to Tokyo and back for a family wedding next month, the trip will choke the skies with more than two tons of CO2. I could make up for some of the eco-burden, or at least the guilt, by sending $32.38 to Climate Care. 
Ring up all the flights I'll take this year: $68.14. The British NGO’s offsetting program, similar to the Terrapass for cars, funds projects to clear the air. Efforts include restoring a Ugandan rainforest and making electricity with defunct British coal mines. Maybe we'll see biofuel-powered planes in our lifetimes.
technorati tags: sustainable, green, global warming
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