Ethics of travelling
This week I am in Chicago for a conference delivering a presentation about my research. As part of my travel I had a 24 hour layover in Reykjavik during which I walked through the city getting a feel for the place. As someone who loves travelling and experiencing new places it is always a pleasure simply walking round and talking in the architecture, though there is always the rub that the needs of the locals are set aside to cater for tourist needs. Alongside this the climate crisis is both exacerbating local inequalities and calling into question the ethics of travel more broadly.
As someone who does not own a car, uses trains and buses on the regular, and flies once or twice a year this is an ethical question I believe is worth exploring. For the most part there is definitely not something holier than thou about my personal environmentalism, as I don’t see the point in lecturing or moralising to anyone about their personal environmental habits. Yet, the underlying question of consumption and willingness to travel simply to consume your destination is urgent when it comes to addressing our desire to travel to far flung destinations.
Living in Europe means I can avoid air travel should I wish and provided I have the time trains are always my preferred alternative, but the last mile to any destination invariably relies on taxis or cars. Most of our developed world is designed for…
