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I’m planning another trip to Europe to see family and to visit some of my favourite cities while there. Booking a long-haul flight always comes with climate guilt. At least we’ll be doing all the ‘domestic’ travel in Europe by train, including some night trains, which I’m pretty excited about.
The last time I talked about tourism in DD253, I shared an essay that made a case against travel and received a lot of replies. Of course, everyone loves to travel. The allure of foreign places and cultures is perhaps as old as humanity itself. But being an international traveller today comes with a set of ethical dilemmas, in large part due to the structural inequality and climate injustice it brings to the fore.
In this recording of a panel discussion, a group of travel writers and tourism operators discuss some of these predicaments. (Jump to the 13-minute mark to skip the introductions.) Some thought-provoking highlights that stood out – paraphrased for brevity/clarity:
“Tourism shares commonalities with international development, namely, its imperialist underpinning in the way that entire cities and economies are transformed to cater to the needs of foreigners. Keep in mind who exactly is travelling and who is being impacted by it. All of the damage that occurs downstream on climate and culture is being perpetuated by a tiny percentage of the most privileged people on this planet, and the impact is disproportionately felt by populations in the Global South. It’s difficult to make travel ethical because it’s predicated on gross inequality and exists within an inherently unethical system.”
“Income disparity is a very quick through line to acting with a gross sense of entitlement. That can be true in relationships, as it can be true on a sort of international scale. And so a question for a lot of travellers is: how do you behave when there is such a vast income disparity? It’s extraordinary how many people will spend $1,500 on a flight to a destination and then get really mad about having to tip a tuk-tuk driver. You should be paying the ‘tourist price’ – you are a tourist!”
One travel writer points out that more and more Western cities are coming to terms with the negative impacts of Airbnb on the local housing market. We’re getting a taste of our own medicine, it seems. If this is how tourism can affect ‘rich’ countries, imagine what our travel dollars do to places where income disparity is extreme.
The panel touches on a number of interesting issues, such as how today’s content creators are transforming places into the unrecognisable. There is an inherent contradiction in travel content: by sharing the magic of a place online, we’re contributing to its transformation into a place that caters to the preferences and privileges of its visitors.
One of the panellists makes a great point about just how much our opinions – and prejudices – about a foreign culture are shaped by the narratives of other visitors to that place rather than the people of that place. And that’s where we might take a small step towards a more ethical way of travelling: by doing our homework first. Books, documentaries, podcasts etc. by and with locals can help us see a place and culture through their eyes, rather than those of just another ‘white traveller’. – Kai
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Apps & Sites
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One thing I don’t like about listening to podcasts is that I can’t easily ‘highlight’ sections that I want to return to or record for sharing in DD. Snipd seems to make that possible: you can highlight sections, take notes, and summarise entire podcast episodes. While listening, you can simply tap your headphones to save a specific moment which triggers an AI-generated transcript, summary and title. Friends of DD enjoy 1 month of Pro for free.
Become a Friend to access specials like this.
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Organise media recommendations
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Does this sounds familiar? Your friend recommends a great TV show and you make a mental note, only to have forgotten it the next day. The Sofa (iOS) app is your organiser for apps, books, movies, TV shows, podcasts, music albums, and video games to enjoy later.
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Practice typing speed and accuracy on your favourite piece of literature – and in multiple languages. From George Orwell’s 1984 to Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. You can track your progress by creating an account – all for free.
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Directory for privacy-first apps
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An extensive directory with services and apps that put a focus on strong encryption/privacy – from email to cloud storage and file sharing to Youtube alternatives.
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Worthy Five: Derek Beres
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Five recommendations by author and podcaster Derek Beres
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A video worth watching:
Beyond being an incredible band, British music duo Jungle has worked with a dance troupe for years for all their videos. With their latest album, they’ve dropped a video per week featuring them. During a time of social and political upheaval, art provides an essential release for your mental and emotional health. My wife and I have looked forward to a new video drop every Monday for months, including Us Against the World.
A Threads account worth following:
The two doctors behind Unbiased Science are always putting out gems. They break things down into easy-to-understand bits, and aren’t afraid to push back on so much of the health and wellness misinformation and grifting going on. While I recommend their podcast as well, you’ll learn a lot following their Threads or Instagram account.
A book worth reading:
The sciences in general, and biology in particular, have been dominated by men for centuries. That’s changing, and with it many of our assumptions about how we evolved and who we are. Eve by Cat Bohannon is a fantastic look at evolutionary biology (and culture) from a female perspective, which has been sorely overlooked for generations.
An activity worth doing:
I’ve always had a bike, but the extreme downturn in traffic during the pandemic (plus closure of gyms) made me take road cycling seriously. Beyond being an amazing and fun physical activity – and quite meditative, which helps me clear my mind – being on a bike shows you how society is constructed around (and biased for) cars. I now put more miles on my bike than car every year.
A podcast worth listening to:
While I listen to a lot of podcasts, If Books Could Kill is a gem that will make you laugh while educating you. In every episode, they take a popular book and break down what it really is (or is not) about. A lot of the books they cover are those glorified self-help blog posts that a publisher realised they could monetise. Along the way, you’ll learn a lot about how we think and why we make bad choices – and how to stop doing that.
(Did you know? Friends of DD can respond to and engage with guest contributors like Derek Beres in one click.)
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Books & Accessories
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The urgent search for a cleaner future
We’re so used to the idea of throwing things away that we never really question where ‘away’ is. In Wasteland, investigative journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis takes a deep dive into the global waste crisis, exposing the hidden world that enables our modern economy. “With this mesmerizing, thought-provoking, and occasionally terrifying investigation, Oliver Franklin-Wallis tells a new story of humanity based on what we leave behind, and along the way, he shares a blueprint for building a healthier, more sustainable world – before we’re all buried in trash.”
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Wilding our cities
Cities will have to reinvent themselves to be able to cope with climate change. Author Ben Wilson offers an urgent re-examination of nature in our cities and shows how urban residents can thrive in a dramatically changing climate: “Our future – and that of the planet – will be made in the city. Only by looking deep into the past, examining the present and casting an eye to the future can we really begin to understand the bountiful potential and wonder of our extraordinary urban ecosystems.”
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Overheard on Twitter
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Stages of plant ownership:
1. I’m going to take such good care of you.
2. Oh no.
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Food for Thought
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Another great podcast episode of one of my favourite podcasts, Big Ideas. A thought-provoking discussion about the ethics of tourism and how we travel in many wrong and right ways that leave the destinations we visit worse (and occasionally better) off. To skip the lengthy speaker introductions, jump straight to the 13-minute mark.
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If you have wondered where we’re at in terms of making travel by plane more sustainable, this is a great, insightful summary of the status quo and the many challenges that remain. “Progress in fuel efficiency, aerodynamics and lighter composite materials has made jet-fueled aircraft much more efficient. A flight today produces half as much CO2 as it did in 1990. But whatever gains have resulted from incremental efficiencies have been swallowed by the growth in air traffic. Between 1990 and 2019, the number of passengers traveling by air globally rose from 1 billion to 4.5 billion.”
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Strongly in the ‘unexpected, but good’ category of essays: writer Kate Barss combines observations on bee hives and swarming with her and her partner’s challenging search for a sperm donor, offering communal perspectives on reproduction and queer family-making. “Rather than viewing bees as thousands of individuals working together, the superorganism theory asks us to view the hive’s entire population as one complete animal – bees akin to cells making up the singular body of the hive. But something about this definition feels off. I’m suspicious that humans, when encountering a species which prioritizes the collective over the individual, seek to reduce that advanced cooperation to the singular. Maybe in a worldview built through the violence of capital, colonies and individualism, we don’t want to acknowledge that there are advantages in ranking community over self.”
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Aesthetically Pleasing
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Nikola Faller is a sculptor and ‘land artist’ using natural materials and surfaces to create artworks, often with impressive geometric precision.
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German aerial and architecture photographer Kevin Krautgartner documents “the element in all its diversity, colorfulness, abundance of form and fragile beauty and aesthetics”. His photo book WATER.COLORS is available on his website.
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Andrew Scott calls his art ‘frame experiments’: “Whether through breaking, shattering, burning, threading, tearing or any other innovative technique, Andrew brings the subjects in his artwork to life. By breaking the fourth wall and making the frame part of the artwork itself, Andrew continually bends artistic convention in innovative and surprising ways.”
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Ideal for branding, headlines, or editorial designs, Nutgame embodies a modern appeal with a touch of ’70s retro flair.
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Notable Numbers
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A new recycling method developed at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden claims to be able to recover 100% of aluminium and 98% of lithium used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
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English Wikipedia received over 84 billion views in 2023, according to data from the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia.
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The damage caused by the climate crisis through extreme weather has cost $16m an hour for the past 20 years, according to a new estimate. It found average costs of $140bn a year from 2000 to 2019, although the figure varies significantly from year to year. The latest data shows $280bn in costs in 2022.
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Classifieds
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The Week in a GIF
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Reply with your favourite GIF and it might get featured here in a future issue.
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