Eco-Conscious Causes
Here are some of the travel books I’ve been reading the past few months, any of which would make a nice gift for the hodophile among your family, friends, colleagues — or for yourself, of course.
They’re selected to get those travel juices flowing again (if they aren’t already).
The Road Trip Survival Guide
By Rob Taylor (Tiller Press, 2021)
Even as the Covid epidemic was dealing severe blows to airline, cruise, and international travel, domestic road trips were zooming in popularity in 2020-21, making this practical yet enjoyably written guide a timely read.
Penned in a folksy style, Rob Taylor encourages readers to “explore at their own speed” and modify his suggestions as needed to fit their own circumstances.
That said, just about any road-tripper (novice or experienced) can find loads of tips within these pages. Divided into five sections — Planning, Packing, Road Trip Food, Safety, and… Continue reading
Ward Luthi, who runs the terrific tour agency Walking The World — geared to active travelers aged 50 and over — has developed a new initiative called the “OK Boomer Challenge.”
The OK Boomer Challenge is a call to Boomers (and anyone else interested) to raise $15 million by the end of 2020 with the goal of planting 15 million trees in different parts of the world.
For each U.S. dollar donated, the organization One Tree Planted will plant one tree. (All funds raised will be donated to One Tree Planted, so $15 million will equal 15 million trees.)
“This is a challenging time for many but particularly, I believe, for older adults,” Luthi explains. “We’re growing older. We have children, family and friends, and a planet that’s on… Continue reading
Research has shown that as we get older, we tend to become more altruistic
As “narcissistic and materialistic values wane in influence” (with age) writes Jim Gilmartin, CEO of the Chicago-based agency Coming of Age, which specializes in marketing to baby boomers and seniors,”concern for others increases.”
In the travel field, this trend has helped fuel the rapid rise of volunteer vacations, also known as “voluntourism”
The concept is simple: rather than go on a more traditional vacation, such as taking a cruise or staying at a resort, you sign up with a company or agency that sets you up to work on a project such as helping in wildlife conservation, building classrooms and homes, or improving local water systems, usually in the developing world.
Yes, you pay for the privilege of helping others, but it’s not necessarily all work and no play, and benefits accrue to the travelers… Continue reading
An African rhino, in the wild. Photo from Travellers Building Change.
The statistics are staggering. Over the past half century or so, Africa’s black rhino population has fallen by some 97.6 percent, mainly as a result of poaching.
Rhinos are killed for their horns, which fetch big prices in some parts of Asia. They’re reputed — wrongly — to have medicinal benefits, particularly as aphrodisiacs. After their horns are cut off, the rest of the rhino is left to rot. It’s a horrible, cruel death for any animal to suffer, much less one of these magnificent, endangered creatures.
In South Africa alone, the number of rhino deaths from poaching has tripled in the past four years.
At this rate, future generations will know of wild rhinos only through books. The so-called Big Five of African safaris — lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo, and rhinos — will be reduced to… Continue reading
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