Photo credit: muha…

This post is an continuation of Travel Green: Manual 1 and Manual 2.

Opt for green: Whether it is a hotel or a tour operator, its environmental initiatives should be codified as policy, thus proving its sensitivity about limiting its impact on the environment. Also, appreciation or concern about a company’s environmental efforts should be expressed either by a comment card or by sending a letter or e-mail to the manager. Generally, companies of all kinds should notice that tourists care about nature and are concerned about the green policy of their choices. The more the demand for greener tourism, the more will industries and companies adopt greener policies.

Public means of transport: It is fairly more difficult than using them in your own country or area, but it is highly recommended. Not only do they minimize your environmental footprint, but also allow you to see a place from the perspective of the locals.

Eat locally: Enjoying the drinks and foods of each destination is actually a greener holiday. Apart from bringing you closer to the local people and their culture, it also helps reduce emissions caused by shipping food around the globe. It also boosts local economy, helping the locals develop their area’s eco-tourism.

At the hotel: Make your own bed and notify the maids not to change your sheets daily, as it’s most often not needed. In that way you reduce water, energy and detergent use. That is, if your hotel does not already have a linen reuse programme.

Shoot digital: Digital cameras require far fewer chemicals and less paper, plus you can delete unwanted shots. Remember to always use rechargeable batteries.

Clean green: Use biodegradable, phosphorous-free soap and shampoo when camping or cruising to avoid adding damaging chemicals to oceans, lakes and rivers. REMEMBER: Phosphorous is one of the main chemicals that leads to eutrophication in marine ecosystems, causing their living organisms to suffocate.

When household and industrial wastes are disposed into the water, they increase the quantity of germs in it. Germs threaten the health of the organisms living in the water, drinking it or feeding on organisms that live in it. Moreover, huge quantities of nitric and phosphoric salts enter the ecosystem. Phytoplankton, the tiniest sea organisms that can photosynthesize and depend highly on those salts, start to grow in population at top speed, consuming oxygen. As a result, zooplankton which feeds on phytoplankton starts to increase in numbers, again consuming oxygen and producing carbon dioxide.

After some time, during which those small organisms continue to consume oxygen and produce larger amounts of carbon dioxide, there is not enough oxygen to sustain bigger organisms, like fish, who actually die of suffocation.

Lakes are the most usual ecosystems harmed by eutrophication. Oxygen cannot be easily diminished in the sea, and the movement of the water in rivers transfer the salts else where. The most common sign of eutrophication is the waters having a deep green colour. And as human wastes increase, ecosystems become more fragile and their living organisms more vulnerable to suffocation.

Consequently, one of our first priorities, as far as those ecosystems is concerned, is to find alternative ways of removing our industrial and household waste, so that it doesn’t end up in the water. The top priority, needless to say, is to reduce those wastes.