Germans urged to give foreign travel a rest to curb global warming

BERLIN (AFP) – As the global warming debate heats up, Germans are being urged to swap their holidays on faraway tropical islands for trips to less glamorous Baltic beaches to help save the planet.

“In the near future, people are going to become increasingly aware that aircraft emit vast amounts of greenhouse gases, far more than cars or trains,” said Manfred Stock, a researcher at the climate research centre in Potsdam outside Berlin.


“If we add to that the fact that in coming decades our summers are going to get warmer and warmer, holiday-makers would do better to head for Sylt, in the Baltic Sea, than to fly to the Seychelles,” he added.

Germans are the world leaders in expenditure on foreign travel, with 2006 figures showing they accounted for 11 percent of global spending on trips abroad, but they do not seem opposed to the suggestion.

AFP