A warm and sunny day interrupted by the quite bussing of a hard working bee, peaking its head outside a flower, trying its best to collect pollen. The deep blue sky, accompanied by the beautiful chirping of the birds, flying around in the trees and trying to impress other females. The green landscape dotted white and brown with cows, munching on their grass and looking up and down. The surface of the water being broken by a frog jumping around, quacking and quacking to add to nature’s symphony. Yes, this is travel. Yes, this is sustainable.
How can one see nature, without him being near it? How can one feel nature, when he is separated from it? How can one protect nature, when one only knows it through pictures and videos? No one can and no one will. Maybe all this beauty in the world is there, so we can see and feel it. And maybe all this beauty is there, so we want to protect it.
Thus, it begs the question of why. Why should humans be put into driving metal boxes or into flying birds? Sustainable does not only mean, how much C02 is being produced or whether it is electrical, hydrogen or still carbon-based motors moving us. No, it means valuing our environment, valuing the plants and animals that surround us. But how can we observe nature, observe the animals working in the forest, when we are moving at speeds no humans should be moving, trapped in little boxes and separated from nature. – Simply – We can’t.
And this is the cause, of why our understanding of nature, our protection of our environment and our appreciation of our surroundings have dwindled so much. No wonder that forests are being destroyed to build more roads and airstrips, when we don’t visit these forests in the first place. No wonder we don’t care, that our emission are killing uncountable number of species, when we don’t see them in the first place. And no wonder we ignore cries for help, when huge sections of the wild are covered by yet another oil leak.
Therefore, there is but one solution, one truly suitable way of travelling. And that – is walking. Only when we walk, can we comprehend the beaty of our world. Only when we walk, do we see how our environment is suffering. And only when we walk, will we start truly caring for it again.
