To any normal person Green Tourism is heading off to far and unspoilt parts of the world and hopefully not spoiling them while doing it. It's something I have certainly done and if you ever see me in a pub and fancy it I can bore you senseless about a particular corner of Honduras and it's unspoilt beauty. But that was back in 2007, the last time I flew, and while I would love to be able to one day justify the carbon and go back in the meantime I have found other fun little things I like to call being a green tourist.
So it was that I found myself last Saturday on the 09:45 to Victoria. The final destination: just outside the Natural History Museum and a day of campaigning with London volunteers as part of Arctic Day. To launch one of it's most ambitious campaigns for a long while Greenpeace volunteers from all over the world hit the streets in their local area to sign people up to Save the Arctic.
The Arctic Ice has been in decline for several years now and instead of seeing it as the warning sign it clearly is many governments and international corporations just see it as a green light for more exploitation. Greenpeace thinks it's time ordinary people say enough and in London this Saturday many did. We are getting people to sign-up on-line or text to show support. The first million names get added to an electronic scroll and, together with a flag for the future, will be dropped on the seabed at the top of the world (or the bottom if you are antipodean in nature).
As I type this that total has passed 200,000 and is growing fast. If you want your name on this historic scroll better act fast and sign up at savethearctic.org
Oh the photo. Well that is the security at the shell headquarters in London. Having done the most basic of research they knew we were out on Saturday and so they barricaded the doors, brought in some heavy security and were ready for anything. Well I say anything, in fact we were out of leaflets by then and after a quick photo session in the park wandered right past the building and headed for the pub. I bet they weren't ready for that!
And a footnote for those that like statistics:
- Honduras 1.47 tonnes of CO2 and some scientific data to help persuade the Honduras government to take action and protect it's coral reefs.
- London 3.4 Kg of CO2 and some additional voices to help persuade governments around the world to take action and protect the planet from short sighted and reckless greedy corporations.
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