The way humanity lives puts the planet at risk. Traveling also contributes to this. In her book “Lovely Planet”, Maria Kapeller counters the usual holiday habits with the concept of slow travel, i.e. careful, conscious travel. In which there is no excessive demand: neither for the travellers, nor for the visitors nor for the ecological reserves.
With the help of anecdotes, Kapeller describes the dilemma of today’s travel: She addresses the scarcely filled drinking water reservoirs in Andalusia, which is reported in the newspapers, while she is lying by the pool in her holiday home and later wanders through avocado plantations that require intensive irrigation. The question of whether and how this can be reconciled from an ecological point of view is what drives the Austrian author and journalist who publishes the travel magazine suitcasepack.at operates to. She addresses an audience that flies on vacation several times a year. In principle, Kapeller does not want to deny people this privilege, but she traces the effects on the environment. Whereby she writes of a “we” in which she includes herself.
She divides her book into seven chapters, each of which is based on a central question. For example: What are the consequences of our desire to travel? She does this with concrete examples. The author contrasts a vacation in Cambodia with the everyday life of a tuk-tuk driver in the country. The man says he has never been to the sea and cannot afford it either. Using Costa Rica as an example, Kapeller explains how close ecotourism and greenwashing are to each other: It is paradoxical, she writes, that people in Costa Rica would promote sustainable tourism but fly to eco-reserves in a propeller plane. Apart from the fact that as a European you can only use the eco-tourism offers if you take a long-haul flight.
According to Kapeller, changing one’s own travel behavior is not possible without giving up privileges. Because, “the way we’re traveling now, we’re tearing up the world – we’re literally tearing it apart,” she writes. And it is difficult for me to let go of it myself. The author emphasizes how valuable and beautiful travel is. Basically, in each of its chapters it only describes the current situation. She hardly makes any suggestions to change this, but always ends with the appeal: And now you! The only conclusion: Travelers should fly less and take the train more instead.
The book encourages reflection on one’s own behavior and reminds readers of their personal responsibility. This is sometimes striking, and the author does not think everything through to the end. After all, she provides impetus, and that alone is refreshing.
Maria Kapeller: Lovely Planet. Travel with the heart and preserve the world. Kremayr-Scheriau Verlag, Vienna 2022. 242 pages. 23 euros.