Arriving in rural Honduras, the first thing you notice, aside from stunning natural beauty and unmeasurable kindness, is the heat. The annual temperature in Honduras has increased by 0.6°C per decade since the 1960s, and greater increases are expected, with soaring temperatures and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events impacting the country’s environment, economy and society. The Global South is suffering inordinately from the climate catastrophe that is inordinately caused by the Global North.
We have our ways of attempting to combat it, which provide us with comfort, and at first glance, these comforts are not accommodated for in rural Honduras. People throw their coco-cola bottles out of the window on the bus, single use plastic bags are distributed liberally in shops, and leaking, fuel guzzling moto-taxis are used for even the shortest journeys.
But what can be said? If an unseen giant was tearing apart your home piece by piece, would you respond by diligently dusting the edges of the fallout? Or would you hold onto the norms and joys scattered in the debry?
At second glance, despite lack of infrastructure or government initiative, there is a push for green living. Drinking water is sold in boletóns; huge bottles which are returned to the shop and reused, volunteers clean the streets and collect rubbish, wildlife is cared for and respected and local professors begin recycling programs which spread across the whole town. People understand the threat of environmental catastrophe and want to care for their communities, despite everything.
Sustainable travel is possible it just requires the traveller to be attentive and adaptable. There is no reason not to bring your own plastic bag to the shop and there is no reason not to walk home. Despite our recycling programs providing a deceptive guise that allow us to keep consuming, we know that the best method of reducing plastic litter is abstinence, and in rural Honduras, fresh fruit juice far trumps fizzy pop. One can even get used to sleeping in a tropical climate without air-conditioning.
Resources are available to support and advise the sustainable traveller. The website Rome2Rio can assist you to navigate to and from virtually anywhere, making use of public transport routes as opposed to planes. Ecolodges are becoming more common globally and allow the traveller to stay in sustainable accommodation and even give back to the environment. Droply is an app which directs you to nearby drinking water, minimising the need for plastic bottles. World Animal Protection can advise and educate the traveller on how to spot and avoid tourist traps which exploit wild animals. Finally, Hostel World can find unique, locally owned accommodation away from tourist hotspots. Sustainable travel not only allows us to do our part in combatting the climate catastrophe but thoroughly embellishes the journey, taking you off the beaten track and forming a unique and special experience. We owe it to the communities and countries that we are so keen to explore.
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