Climate change is affecting Alaska faster and more severely than anywhere else on the globe. But even the most committed environmentalists in Alaska have a hard time reducing their carbon footprint -- the amount of carbon dioxide each of us causes to be emitted to the atmosphere, which increases global warming. Getting to and around Alaska uses a lot of fuel. A single passenger flying from Seattle to Anchorage and back is responsible for about 1,700 pounds of CO2. Cruise ships emit twice as much carbon dioxide per passenger-mile as airliners. Driving to Alaska emits even more than taking a ship, partly because you have to go three times as far to cover the same distance.
Other than walking, rowing, or riding on horseback to Alaska, the only solution is to offset your carbon emissions by doing good somewhere else. To make that easy, a market has developed in carbon offsetting that allows buyers to fund a piece of a larger project that will cut emissions. The idea is that offsets you buy account for what you emit by taking your trip. This concept is still in its infancy, however, and there's work left to make it fully credible. Critics have pointed out that whether the offsets really reduce carbon emissions depends on the quality of the projects they fund and if those projects actually take place. Until the market matures, it's buyer beware. Make sure you're buying something real by reading up and checking that the seller is audited. U.S. companies selling carbon offsets include Carbonfund.org (www.carbonfund.org) and TerraPass (www.terrapass.org), and, in the U.K., Climate Care (www.climatecare.org). Best of all, reduce your own impact as much as possible -- that's more important than offsetting.
Many other environmental issues affect Alaska, and tourism has been on both sides -- whom you choose to work with makes a difference. Eco-tourism has had a significant role over the years in helping conservation. One of Alaska's best eco-tourism operators, Alaska Discovery, started leading groups because its founders wanted to develop a constituency to save beautiful places by taking people there. The Alaska Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Association (www.awrta.org) is a large and effective coalition of eco-tourism operators who communicate an environmental message to clients and use their political muscle to support conservation causes. The association's website makes it easy to find home-grown eco-tourism operators in Alaska.
Information sources nationally include Responsible Travel (www.responsibletravel.com), a source of sustainable travel ideas; the International Ecotourism Society (www.ecotourism.org), offering eco-friendly travel tips, statistics, and touring companies and associations; and Ecotravel.com, an online magazine and eco-directory that lets you search for touring companies. In the U.K., Tourism Concern (www.tourismconcern.org.uk) works to reduce social and environmental problems connected to tourism.
