Wander and Wonder, a Venn diagram
I made a map of the Wander and Wonder topics – climate-friendly and slow travel and equitable access to outdoor recreation – to clarify for myself what this blog is about and to help me imagine what travel in the future might look like. I also assured myself that this framework is a work in progress. The more I wander and wonder, the more I’ll refine this map. If you have thoughts about how I could refine what’s here, I welcome the dialogue.
Nature’s awesomeness covers everything. It’s why these topics are worth exploring, why people enjoy spending time outdoors, why I want to protect and savor it, why I want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to experience The Wonder.
Climate-Friendly Travel
Climate-friendly travel aims to have as small a carbon footprint as possible. It is ecotourism in a fashion, but transportation or travel mode is the core preoccupation because transportation is the greatest source of greenhouse gas pollution from travel. The journey is the destination characterizes climate-friendly travel. How you get somewhere is often more important than where you’re going. For some people, there is no destination other than the journey.
Ecotourism is defined by The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.” The emphasis in ecotourism is on conservation and education. While ecotourism is defined by responsible travel, the allure of special natural areas may result in people using travel modes with relatively high greenhouse gas emissions to reach them. In its simplest form, ecotourism does not limit someone to traveling only to places they can reach using their feet, a bicycle, or a human-powered boat.
Climate-friendly travel does entail restrictive use of fossil fuels, but it does not require only human-powered transportation. Some practitioners will also account for complete lifecycle carbon costs of the travel mode. In the case of electric powered transportation, some places have cleaner electricity than others, which may factor into mode choice. Mass transportation or transit has a smaller carbon footprint per person, which makes these modes options in climate-friendly travel even if they are powered by fossil fuels. At the extreme, climate-friendly travelers could be dumpster divers who travel with found or used gear.
The United Nations Climate Change offers “Stay at Home” for their number one way to make travel climate friendly. World Nomads’ top tip of ten is to use reusable bags instead of plastic bags (tips 2 to 5 and 7 relate to transportation).
Generally, climate-friendly travel has the following characteristics:
Closer to home
Takes time
More able-bodied
Smaller group size
Travel modes for climate-friendly travel include:
Bicycle
Walk/hike/run
Paddle (consider low-carbon emissions hauling if you need to transport your craft to/from water)
Ski/snowshoe
Train
Transit/bus/ferry
Carpool
For some information on greenhouse gas emissions related to transportation, the U.S. Department of Transportation updated a white paper in 2010 on public transportation’s role in responding to climate change. The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, using U.S. transportation data from 2016, has considerations for reducing your transportation carbon footprint. A 2022 visualization based on data from the United Kingdom that compares the carbon footprint of transportation options, shows that short flights and drive alone trips are the most carbon intensive transportation.
Most climate-friendly travel could be considered slow travel. One example of climate-friendly travel that I would not consider slow travel is a car-free team in the Ski to Sea race. I suppose this kind of event and the travel surrounding it could be slow travel (the journey is the destination), but the dimension of timing puts attention on the activity and its speed rather than mindful attention to where the travelers are. Another race that might also qualify is the Race to Alaska. All watercraft in this race are required to be non-motorized (how these boats and boards arrive in Port Townsend, Washington, and return to their home storage or moorage from Ketchican, Alaska, is another factor in the overall climate friendliness of this travel.
Slow Travel
Slow travel grew out of the slow food movement. It emphasizes connection to a local place and culture. It might mean living somewhere for a time and doing as the locals do (speaking the local language, eating the local food, appreciating local music, learning about local customs and culture). It might mean moving slowly somewhere instead of zipping by and missing the gems of the place you’re traveling through – the journey is the destination.
Slow travel is a mindset more than a transportation style. Generally, slow travel asks us to be mindful and present wherever we are, to engage our senses and appreciate The Now. Even if the adventure is as modest as a neighborhood walk, it can still be slow travel, but the challenge is to experience a familiar place as if it were new to you - it is new in the moment. In my post, Beach walks and slow travel, I highlighted some principles of slow travel.
Because slow travel is destination and experience focused, the obsession with travel mode that characterizes climate-friendly travel does not necessarily apply to slow travel. Air travel and driving are ways to save time to have a more deliberate experience in a particular place. Maybe you live in the U.S. and plan to be in Oaxaca for a month or sign on as a voluntourist in Madagascar on a reef conservation project. You would probably fly to these destinations and then sink into the experience while you’re there. Or perhaps you live in the U.S. and fly across the country to spend several days driving to see Oregon’s historic bridges. You stop in small towns and get local recommendations for places to eat. In this scenario, the slow travel is the time in communities making connections with the locals and the unique history of the place you’re in.
Where climate-friendly travel usually has a smaller group size to minimize impacts to the environment, slow travel can accommodate larger groups. Still, the experience of a farm-to-table meal, for example, is different when served to groups of twenty or four people. Yet, if community meals are part of the local culture, twenty people might be in alignment with where you are.
Equitable Access to Outdoor Recreation
In the U.S., the outdoor industry and outdoor spaces are dominated by white, able-bodied people. Many factors contribute to why this is the case, and the barriers to access affect everyone to some degree.
These barriers to access include:
Time
Income
Distance from home
Transportation
Personal safety/security
Body size/type
Age
Race
Ability
Lack of access or opportunity while growing up
Gender
Sexual identity
Family/group size
Gear
The U.S. Forest Service published a study on equity in access to outdoor recreation in Volume 12 of Sustainability that examines racial and ethnic disparities in outdoor recreation participation. In late September 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration advanced a commitment to create more equitable access to natural areas in nature-deprived communities. The commitment involves ten Federal departments and agencies, including transportation, and considers part of the endeavor to recognize urban parks and natural areas as nature. Organizations like Outdoor Alliance have been working to support initiatives that improve equitable access to the outdoors, and REI sponsored development of an action plan for change, Five ways to make the outdoors more inclusive. Diversify Outdoors is a coalition of digital influencers, affinity groups, and allies promoting diversity in outdoor recreation and conservation.
There is no single action to address even one of these barriers, which means there are infinite ways to approach equity in outdoor recreation. I love how Diversify Outdoors collects and shares stories and photos from every facet of the equity in outdoors gemstone. I find one of the ways I can address inequities outdoors is to educate myself – the more exposure I have to the kinds of outdoor recreation and experiences people have, the better able I can advocate for and share what I learn with others. Invariably, what works for some people will not work for others. Communication is key, as is recognition of the individual privileges and perspectives each of us brings to fostering equity in the outdoors.
As an example, outdoor recreation for people with disabilities might look like signage at outdoor recreation facilities or other information that describes conditions and experiences in a way someone who needs mobility assistance can determine for themselves if the facility or experience is suitable. Move United is another organization working to ensure that sports and recreation are available to everyone regardless of their ability. The U.S. Blind Tandem Cycling Connection pairs sighted cyclists with blind cyclists.
In fleshing out the topic area circles, I hope to provide you with enough food for thought to conceptualize how they might overlap. Rather than discuss the following intersecting areas at length, I offer a few examples for each to demonstrate what they could look like.
Climate-friendly and slow travel
Most climate-friendly travel is also slow travel, typically the kind where the journey is the destination. This could look like a bike-tour where you leave on a bicycle from your front door, like I have done many times, and return on bicycle or via train or bus or other form of land- or water-based transit. This could also be a through hike, not unlike my variety of bike tour, where you walk out the door and the adventure begins or you use transit to reach a trailhead or close to one and return home using similar means. In winter, this could be a hut-to-hut ski or fat tire bike adventure, especially in areas where weather is conducive to departing from home using your preferred mode and/or in an area with transit that serves winter recreation.
Two books that detail adventures like this are Going Somewhere by Brian Benson and A Long Trek Home by Erin McKittrick. In both stories, the adventurers were couples whose new homes were their final destination. Bicycling with Butterflies by Sara Dykman is the story of her bicycle ride following the monarch butterfly migration from Mexico into Canada and back.
Climate-friendly travel and equitable access
The following are examples of climate-friendly travel that provides access for people who do not or cannot drive and/or who may not be able to walk or bicycle for miles. In the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area are waterfalls, the Pacific Crest Trail, the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail, and in the spring, Dog Mountain’s stunning wildflower-carpeted slopes. South of the scenic area is Mt. Hood, which includes skiing most of the year, a rustic and historic lodge experience at Timberline Lodge, and mountain biking at Sandy Ridge and other locations.
Transit, shuttles, and small group adventure tours are available for people initiating a trip from the Portland, Oregon, area to reach these destinations without having to drive.
Slow travel and equitable access
For people who have more constraints on time and distance away from home or challenges with recreation access, driving can help overcome these barriers. This might include a family drive of a farm-to-table tour route, a single- or multi-day float or paddle trip, even day hikes or participation in trail running events.
A Beautiful Work in Progress by Mirna Valerio tells the story of how Mirna became an ultra runner despite not looking like most or any other ultra runners out there.
The sweet spot
Not everyone lives in urban areas, but many do. The United Nations makes the point that the most-climate friendly travel is to stay home. The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to improving access to outdoor recreation in nature-deprived communities/urban environments. Many people are pressed for time, but outdoor recreation can happen outside the building where one lives, in their neighborhood. Slow travel is a mindset, all a person must do is be open to and present for the experiences in a locality.
This sweet spot of taking in the moment of your own or a nearby neighborhood might not seem like much, but in terms of caring for the planet and our personal well-being and being an activity anyone can do, the benefits of local outdoor exploration are immeasurable.
I acknowledge that not every outdoor place is conducive to experiences with nature or that the experiences might not be pleasant or refreshing. At its most basic level, the sweet spot could be watching ants on a sidewalk, observing how many things are alive from wherever you are, sitting a moment to appreciate the weather and how different parts of your body experience it. This could be watching birds in a yard or at a feeder, appreciating the different plants growing in a neighborhood. It might be going on a bicycle ride, walk or run in your neighborhood. The sweet spot might be visiting a nearby park with your family or attending a local outdoor cultural event and walking, bicycling or using transit to attend.
