13
votes
Around the world in 80 days ... sustainably
21st century version of the Jules Verne classic.
No new carbon added to the atmosphere.
Piece of cake? Impossible? Doable?
Discuss...
21st century version of the Jules Verne classic.
No new carbon added to the atmosphere.
Piece of cake? Impossible? Doable?
Discuss...
It's been done with a single plane over a year and a half, with a lot of time lost to repairs and whatnot.
https://aroundtheworld.solarimpulse.com/adventure
One could do it in a fraction of the time with pre-planned and proactive maintenance, or with multiple planes each doing a leg of the trip. You'd probably bend sustainability a little unless the manufacturing process is carbon neutral, but down that path lies madness.
I think you could do it. If you hopped aboard shipping vessels there wouldn't really be any new emissions. You can do it, it's just pretty expensive. Going port to port you could probably do that in 80 days. If you also illegally hopped on freight rail along with the shipping vessels you could probably do it even faster as long as you weren't arrested. But those are kind of boring.
I'd recommend adding a second category for fun, sustainable travel: Around the world in 300 days. If you had 300 days it would be much more feasible to do it via bike and hobby sailboat. There are lots of website where you can sign up to crew a recreational sailboat and bike touring is very easy to get into.
So, I'm kinda fascinated that the obvious answer doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone.
Sailboats.
There is literally a "Jules Verne" around the world sailboat race. The current record is just over 40 days ... which is freaking insane ... sailboats maintaining an average speed of over 30+ mph, for weeks straight.
Still, I like exploring this idea from an "everyman" perspective, not multimillion dollar yachts crewed by world class sailors ... and also, considering the Jules Verne-like aspect of using multiple different modes of travel, elephants and airships and bicycles and whatnot.
PS: 25,000-ish miles around the world, 80 days ... that works out to an average of only 13-14 mph ... so it's not as difficult as it might sound.
I think using planned battery swap stations, having been pre-charged via solar energy, a trip that produces no new carbon emissions in relation to the transportation method used during the course of the trip would be possible. Both air and watercraft designs are advanced enough to have electric only propulsion systems. Great topic btw.
Nuclear powered submarine perhaps?
No such thing as traveling sustainably.
I mean, you could walk.
But all that CO2 you're breathing out while you walk? Horrible for the environment...
You call it an environmental hazard, I call it organic free-range plant food with no pesticides.