Caravan holidays really the are the green solution to eco-friendly holidays...
We are constantly reminded by the press and the government that we
all have a responsibility to reduce our carbon footprint. Holidays
are responsible for a large amount of green house gas production and
although Tony Blair insists we should still have fun it has to be responsible,
planet friendly fun. I'm about to prove to you that caravanning and
caravan holidays really are the eco-friendly way to go on holiday even
if you do need a big vehicle to tow your caravan.
As with everything environmental, you can now calculate your carbon dioxide produced in pursuit of leisure and relaxation with an online web application. An average short haul flight to Europe produces around 600 tonnes (600,000 kg) of CO2 per aircraft. Now that is a fairly substantial amount and it is produced in the most vulnerable part of the atmosphere. While I'm all for a little global warming up here in the North East of Scotland (the new Riviera?), these kind of emissions are probably having some effect on our planet even if you are cynical about the whole green house gas effect. Now let us do a similar journey by towing our caravan a family average of about 400 miles on holiday. The CO2 produced for this tree hugging journey is a mere 161kg. This means that about 3000 of us could go on a caravan holiday before we even touched on our short haul flight. If we put four people in each caravan, that is 12,000 holidays!
Now, I may have not exactly compared like with like but there is no doubting that a caravan holiday is definitely going to help stopping Norfolk becoming a big boating lake. Not only that, if you take your caravan to Scotland you will save the NHS thousands by not contracting skin cancer due to over exposure to the sun! In all seriousness, when we go on a caravan holiday we also help with supporting local rural communities by buying locally and studies have shown that caravanners tend to keep their cars longer than the average motorist. A caravan is cheaper to build than a Boeing 737 and is less hungry of our planet's raw materials. The case for the prosecution rests.
The next time that you are castigated for owning a caravan and gas guzzling tow vehicle, you can refer them to this page for the counter argument even if the science maybe a little tongue in cheek. With all the advantages for families of a self contained caravan adventure, I predict an unprecedented growth in caravanning.
