Carbon hacking: Least carbon-intensive traveling between US and Europe

EgoEimi
2022-06-23T18:23:19Z

My life is split between the US and the Netherlands, where I have friends and work in both places. I try to fly as little as possible: only one intercontinental flight per year. But even that puts my individual carbon footprint far above the average human's. I buy carbon offsets but that just shifts responsibility.

I've long been deeply inspired by Greta Thunberg's protest act of sailing from England to New York to attend a 2019 climate summit. But sailing across the ocean in a racing yacht with a crew simply is too extreme.

So I'm curious what are the options for reducing carbon emissions when traveling between continents.

I've contemplated hopping on a freighter ship. My thinking is that: freighter ships are extremely efficient cargo-weight-to-emission ratio-wise, so the marginal carbon emission of me as added 'cargo' must be much lower than as another passenger on an airplane. Plus, the freighter ship will be sailing with or without me on board; whereas as a plane passenger I enable the business of a passenger flight.

Comments URL: https://tildes.net/~enviro/11pu/carbon_hacking_least_carbon_intensive_traveling_between_us_and_europe

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