From The Editor

GOING ANYWHERE NICE THIS YEAR?

You’ll probably be reading this on an unseasonably mild/cold/dry/wet January day. (Please select appropriate extraordinary weather descriptor.) So just let me give you, in a tone of voice you’ll readily recognise as that of your friendly local climate change geek, a little bit of background info.

“It is interesting, if not surprising, to note that, as of the time of writing, 2006 was well on course to be the UK’s hottest year since records began, including the hottest ever month (in July), the warmest ever September, a summer drought, and well above average autumn rainfall.”

Sounds depressingly familiar? I assure you it’s all true, and I’m not just recycling the data from 2005, or 2004. It’s simply that each succeeding year now seems to bring a similar barrage of weather extremes, each of them every bit as unprecedented. Yet none of it tells you what to expect - except the unexpected - if you are thinking of planning a nice relaxing break.

The winter sports enthusiasts among you will already know, of course, that skiing seasons have been all over the place of late. Our feature on the industry [‘Race to the bottom ’] goes into the whys, wherefores and carbon costs of this telltale crisis. Elsewhere in this special holiday issue, there’s stuff you can actually factor into your plans: the shift in the tourist trade in more benign directions [‘Holidays of tomorrow?’], for instance, or the joys of travel for less carbon and less stress [‘Slow is beautiful ’].

But what about our seemingly insatiable appetite for air travel, the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gases? The European Commission has just put forward its plans to bring this sector into its emissions trading scheme. The aviation industry itself prefers the ETS mechanism to the threat of a straight tax on fuel or emissions. So does our carbon-trade-savvy interviewee David Miliband. Now we’ll have to wait and see - as if we had the time! - whether the amount of ‘free’ carbon permits allocated to airlines is low enough, or the trading price for buying more permits high enough, to make a big difference to the cost of flying.

Already, though, I’ve been picking up on a new phrase, perhaps even a new social trend, as people start talking about saving, or using up, their “last long haul”. These aren’t the dyed-in-the-wool die-rather-than-fly brigade; in fact some of them have probably enjoyed frequent flier benefits before now. But there’s no kudos attached any more to the ‘jet-set’ lifestyle. Status is slowly becoming stigma, as flying to Acapulco starts to say more about selfishness than style.

For the keen collector of ‘tipping points’, this looks like a prime candidate to me.

ROGER EAST

11 January 2007

Roger East