Why I cancelled a subscription to Lonely Planet Magazine

On Saturday I sent the following email to the editors of the Lonely Planet Magazine:

Dear Editors

I am writing to explain to you why, after eleven copies of the Lonely Planet Magazine, I have cancelled the direct debit for my subscription to your magazine.

I have enjoyed the magazine since the first copy I received. The design is superb, the photography is first class and the articles are interesting. I have be inspired to consider locations I haven’t considered before, and my young son has enjoyed learning about places he didn’t know existed.

But all of this is overshadowed by one part of your magazine that has annoyed me since day one – you overwhelming support of air travel.  Every destination outside of the United Kingdom, you advise on flights, yet rarely if ever on other forms of travel such as by train. And on the rare occasion train travel details are given for a destination, it is after you have given details of how to fly there.

I don’t need to tell you how damaging flying is for the environment: every environmental organisation has the facts available via the internet. And while business travel accounts for much of the rise in air travel, travel for recreation is also a huge part of that growth. Magazines like Lonely Planet influence people’s decisions, both by outright recommending that they should fly, but also by presenting travel information in a way that it seems inevitable that you have to fly to get where you want to go. If train travel is mentioned, it is usually as something exotic and out of the ordinary.

I’m sorry Lonely Planet, but I won’t be buying your magazine anymore. While travel that is usually labelled ‘sustainable’ or ‘green’ or ‘eco’ might seem like a fringe interest to travel magazines right now, if more publications don’t start to support it, there are not going to be the resources for anyone to travel at all. And potentially there won’t be anywhere worth travelling to see. And that would be a loss to everyone, including businesses like yours that make their money from our love of travel.

Regards,

Natalia Forrest

Now, it might seem a bit melodramatic to send something like this to the editors, but I couldn’t see the point of ‘taking a stand’ if I didn’t actually let them know. And I meant what I said—it is a good magazine (if a bit light and fluffy—travel p*rn rather than a true resource for planning, if you will) and there is much about it I enjoyed. But as long as magazines keep encouraging travellers to think that flying is ‘normal’, even for short trips from the UK to places such as France, the environmentally irresponsible practice of flying places for a holiday will continue. Short-haul, weekend trips to Europe that involve flying have a cost to the planet way beyond the ticket price. Call me a tree-hugging sanctimonious killjoy, but I do think this is an issue, and it is an issue few people seem to actually bother to think through.

Now, we are less than perfect, and would be the first to admit it. When we return to Australia to visit family, we are going to have to fly.* And if friends or family from Australia come to visit us, they are going to fly. Yes, part of our reason for choosing to move to the UK is we like to travel, and it is easier to see other places by train or ferry from here than Australia; but of course not everyone can do what we did. I accept that, so, despite appearances to the contrary with this post, I usually don’t harangue people about this issue: like other ethical choices, I am more about letting other people find out how great the alternatives to ‘normal’ behaviour are rather than lecturing them. But occasionally you just feel the need to take a stand. Or I do, anyway

Okay, I am off my soapbox now. Let me know—do you try to find alternatives to flying? Do you even care? What about long haul – is it acceptable to fly every few years to visit family in another hemisphere, or is that as bad as a couple short haul flights every year? Is travelling for any reason that is for entertainment rather than necessity environmentally damaging?

* I know it is possible to get from the UK to Australia by a combination of overland and sailing, but when you are limited by time and having a small person with you, it is either exorbitantly expensive or just going to take too long.

If you are interested in finding out more about the impact of flying, check out the fantastic Do The Green Thing website.