Have you ever thought about how long it will be before you can no longer afford to take airline flights? Or more importantly how long before the environmental problems with airline and other forms of travel & transportation become too important or significant to ignore?

(NOTE: A blog post with the show notes that relate to travel impact figures etc, is being finished and edited as we speak, and will be live this week of 10/27)

These are real issues that confront us today, and could be a reality for us within only decades.

What will you do when you can’t fly to business meetings because the client can’t support the travel budget?

What will you do when the goods your business relies upon, or that your business sends to people faces three of four times the cost of shipping and transport?

What does life look like when we can’t get to Italy from the USA in 8 hours unless we have some serious money?

– Cruise Liners no longer aimlessly exploring the seas
– Much fewer airlines in business
– Governments no longer able to support the tax breaks
– Shipping that takes weeks instead of days
– Vacation time of 6 to 8 weeks needed to be able to “get away”, if you’re ever going to be able to “get back” in time.

These, and so many more issues are bound to face society in the future.

Maybe not next week, maybe not next decade, but certainly in the future.

And what is “sustainable travel” anyway? It seems that many consider this to be booking at hotels that reduce their laundry loads, or restaurants that source local foods, or tours that support local business growth (not chains). And then there’s bicycling, hiking, walking and other low impact forms of travel. And this is not to speak of the type of travel that seeks to share the wonders of nature, the human spirit and the social impacts of visiting those who we can benefit, or can benefit us.

But there is one thing that ALL travel addicts have in common, and it’s the “travel bug”. The need to see and experience new places.

I’m not certain that many travel bloggers, travel agents or travel addicts can fulfill their audience, clients and personal needs for travel by staying within the 50 to 100 mile radius that bicycle or other low-impact forms of travel demand.

On the positive side, the result would be a more local economy. But the downside (as I’m sure you’ve thought about now) would be nothing short of devastating.

So therefore, we must ask ourselves what will become of travel, when it’s no longer sustainable to do so?

And that’s what I explored this week on sustainacast with travel expert and blogger Edward Hasbrouck of www.hasbrouck.org

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