I just read a laughable article from the Edmonton Sun titled “Camping Green Is Easy To Do.” Judging by the title you’d think it would be a helpful primer on limiting your environmental impact when camping but instead the main tip is: don’t drive your RV too far - that wastes gasoline. Yep, if that’s the jist of green camping then I suppose it is easy to do… But what about the chemical toilets in RVs - are those eco-friendly?

Fortunately for tent-campers camping green isn’t difficult and there are ways you can decrease your environmental impact. For starters, practice “leave no trace” camping whenever possible - if you’re not sure what that means, read our tips for low impact camping we posted back in October. Leave no trace camping addresses everything from where to place your tent to how you interact with plant and animal life.

At first glance camping may appear to have a tiny carbon footprint but there is always room for improvement. Wood-burning campfires produce about 2.8 pounds of greenhouse gasses for every 1 pound of wood burned (don’t ask me how that works) which is a good endorsement for putting out the campfire during the day at the very least. Campfires also put particulate matter (soot) into the air and anyone who has accidentally inhaled smoke from a fire knows it doesn’t feel good in the lungs. Instead of cooking over a fire, consider using a gas stove which produces fewer emissions (though the production side of “white gas” is a whole other story…).

If you want to be completely carbon neutral in your camp cooking, consider eating raw (I’ll skip this one myself) OR use a solar powered stove to heat your meals. That’s right, solar power is alive and well at the campground and you can read this article to find out how to get started.

If you’re using a portable generator on your camping trip, consider this: the gasoline engines that power portable generators can produce up to 50 times as much CO2 as an automobile running for the same amount of time. Clearly generators aren’t compatible with green camping for both emissions and noise reasons - leave them at home.

Finally, the Edmonton article did get one thing right about green camping: driving to and from the campground can be be the largest greenhouse gas contributor of an entire trip. Carpool with your friends and limit vehicle use once you’re at your destination. Good planning will ensure that you’re not constantly jumping in the car to pick up ice, paper plates, etc. because you forgot them.

If you’re like me you enjoy camping because it’s a chance to connect with natural, wild environments and we can all agree that these places deserve to be protected. Consider how you can green your next camping trip!

Related posts:

1. Leave no trace camping tips
2. Tips for camping with your dog
3. Camping safety tips
4. Fall hiking tips
5. Solar cooking

Tags: environment, green, low impact

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 8:07 am and is filed under camping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.