A Trip Around The World Becomes Reality

A month ago we got a ride from a friend to Regina Canada where we started our adventure. When I started to plan for our first trip to the Philippines since 2018, I decided to price out flying through Europe since my wife's niece lives in Belgium and encouraged us to come. By searching one way tickets, one can often get a cheaper flight than for a round trip. It became apparent that for around the same money, or a little more, we could fly around the world. it was the right choice to see a little more of the world and visit family in the Philippines at the same time.  Even though I feel a heavy share of rich world climate guilt for a lot a gratuitous flying, it may be our choice next time as well if the travel window remains open. The golden age of travel may be coming to an end.

 The window on what I call the "golden age of travel" is closing. The Internet has allowed anyone with the means to plan and book a trip from the comfort of their home. I wish such a world had existed when I was young. At that time, it was much harder. The only thing lost is that there was once more mystery in the world 

Second to the price in our consideration was the fact that we had time. Part of the reason for going back to teaching was to have time to travel. During the planning we were both working in situations that were unfortunately the most toxic of our lives and were at the point of walking away. The trip has been a way to renew my faith in a humanity I thought was lost. Travel renews faith in humanity and makes the world small

The window on easy global travel may be closing. Climate Change impacts geopolitics and vice versa. If I had though of taking the same trip in 2018, I would have taken the Trans Siberian Railway from Europe to Asia and connected with the high speed trains of China, working our way to Shenzen and cossing the border to Hong Kong. From there we could get a cheap flight to the Philippines because the workers that keep Hong Kong moving are Filipinos  We were in HK in 2018 on the way to Philippines and could feel the winds of change at that time. Now there is no border or difference between HK and China and China has become a more difficult place. Russia, the renewed neo-Soviet power, might now be hard traveling for an American trying to cross without incident if we could even get a visa to get in. 

Another potential reason to travel was to avoid a gap in our health insurance. It would be cheaper to get an international health plan and travel than pay the gap coverage between jobs. Fortunately we are covered through August, but in the U.S it may be a good backup strategy for a relatively healthy person to just go abroad.

Finally, many places are becoming hot and volatile and climate is influencing the people and politics in a big circle. Ironically a denizen of the rich world like me taking a bunch of gratuitous flights around the world is helping to speed the process even though long haul flights are not so much the problem as short ones, since most of the carbon is from takeoff and landing.

 While Filipinos roast without aircon or the money or ability to travel and roast in temperatures approaching the deadly wet bulb combination of temperature and humidity, I can take my privelidged ass and fly home if it gets to be too much. Even if Filipinos do have money, their passports exclude them from the rich and mostly cooler countries. What horror awaits the future in such places?   

We should send every politician and member of the corporate or financial elite on a trip to sit in a slum in some developing country without aircon or fresh water, so it will help them contemplate the future coming for all of us. But who am I but a globe trotting hypocrite? In the rich world, most of us are hypocrites.