“Traveling to an interesting place will provide more lasting satisfaction than upgrading your car, even if they cost about the same amount… Travel is a likely growth area with a shift to experiences.” Bill Conerly, “Experience Over Things: The Future Of The Consumer Economy”

 "…consumer spending on recreation, travel and eating out has been trending up for more than a decade." Kevin Logan, U.S. chief economist for HSBC

 "For many people reading this, air travel is their most serious environmental sin. One round-trip flight from New York to Europe or to San Francisco creates a warming effect equivalent to 2 or 3 tons of carbon dioxide per person." New York Times: The Biggest Carbon Sin is Air Travel  

"A typical restaurant meal’s CO2e [CO2 equivalent] emissions is 3.67 times the CO2e emissions of a meal prepared and eaten at home... Microwaves are the most energy-efficient followed by induction, and traditional burners. Ovens are the least efficient cooking method." Elizabeth Ward, “Carbon Footprint-Restaurants vs Home Cooking”                      

Consuming experiences instead of things sounds so virtuous and life-enriching. Forget bling, raft down the Amazon! Have a culinary adventure in Thailand! Problem is, consumable experiences are often the kind that are bad for the planet, e.g. travel and dining out. What to do?

Actually, travel is the main culprit here. It's the travel involved in dining out that results in higher emissions than eating at home. As long as we drive some distance to restaurants, we're going to emit more than staying home to eat (as the general rule). So... here's to dense urban living with good public transportation and walkable neighborhoods. Absent that, here's to creative microwave cooking at home!

As for air travel, conscientious consumers could set up a CO2 emissions budget and then reward themselves with a travel adventure when the budget allows. Consider the following:

Air Travel*:

Short flight of 500 miles =  640 pounds of CO2 roundtrip
Long flight of 3000 miles = 2340 pounds of CO2
roundtrip

Car Travel:

15,000 miles at 35 miles/gallon = 8580 pounds of CO2

Pretend the emissions budget includes only air and car travel and the total annual CO2 budget is 8580 pounds. Then, if your vehicle mileage one year is just 14,000,  you can reward yourself with a short-distance vacation. If you manage to drive your car just 10,000 miles one year, then you're good for that European vacation. 

That's the principle - kind of like carbon trading at the individual level.

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*For more on these calculations, see my prior post CO2 Emissions and Air Travel. Emissions from take-offs and landings are greater than flying at altitude, so fewer emissions per mile with longer flights.