Contents

• Background
  • Airplanes
  • Cruise Ships
• The freighter solution?
  • Join the merchant marine or crew on a yacht?
• The links you were looking for

Background

Ofek's ecotravel list, and my experience flying back from the TCFCIII Conference reminded me that the thoughts and feelings motivating carfreeness extend to other areas. Here are some links on the evils of:

Airplanes

External Costs: As you may know, airplane travel has, in some presentations at least, the largest external costs (e.g. air pollution, noise pollution, habitat destruction that is not reflected in the cost of the ticket). "An external cost, also known as an externality, arises when the social or economic activities of one group of persons have an impact on another group and when that impact is not fully accounted, or compensated for, by the first group."[1]

• http://www.google.com/search?&q=external+costs
• Some nice graphs suggesting that "Passenger cars, trucks and aviation have the highest external costs per transported unit."
• The UK's Aviation Environment Federation (AEF) has links to the following:
  • Valuing the External Costs of Aviation (2003)
  • The hidden cost of flying (AEF, 2000)
  • External Costs - The True Costs Of Flying
• Aviation's economic downside (John Whitelegg and Spencer Fitz-Gibbon. Green Party of England & Wales, December 2003)

• An Earth Island Journal article, The jetcraft juggernaut (2001). There is an article in the same issue on the possibility of green airports
• Economads' libaware Fly the friendly skies? article (2002?)

Cruise Ships

• the Bluewater Network's Safeguarding the seas campaign

As always, we should consider the (possibility of) positive aspects to air and water travel.

The freighter solution?

So, if you've been following Erica & Ofek's travels, you will note that they took an uneconomadic ship from the UK to Boston in the Fall of 2002. Ofek had wished to crew on or buy a sailboat to get across, but as they were traveling with a small child, that plan was dropped.

Join the merchant marine or crew on a yacht?

Floatplan.com is one resource for those interested in crewing on sailboats.

Personally, I've been interested in the possibility of going to New Zealand and Asia without flying. My earlier efforts at finding out how to ride on working ships were not successful. I have considered joining the Merchant Marine, both as a way to get away from cars and as a way to travel. The US Coast Guard Licensing website has some information useful for Americans, at least: here is their New Mariners - Where to begin guide. The International Maritime Organization has a list of Maritime Administrations in other countries.

The links you were looking for

Yesterday I opened the San Diego Union Tribune and found the links I'd tried to find earlier:

• The article itself: Freight and sea: Ship transports goods while passengers leisurely enjoy wonders of British Columbia's Inside Passage (Alison DaRosa, 2004-02-15)
• http://www.google.com/search?q=freighter+travel
• Guide to freighter travel

Some links from the article.

• http://www.travltips.com/
• http://freighterworld.com/
• http://freightercruises.com/
• http://www.freighter-travel.com/

That's all for now! Although, if you haven't already seen the By fair means link, I think it is somewhat related.

[1] (Pdf) http://www.nei.org/documents/EC_External_Costs_Study.pdf