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Many sports and hobbies are fairly innocuous things – good for the soul and kind on the environment. There are, however, some that are better than others and all can be done in a more or less sympathetic way.
Take hill walking, for instance. At one extreme it is gently strolling along the mountain trails, staying in local B&Bs and eating local food from small cafés. At the other it is beating through delicate nature reserves, leaving litter and fire burns at campsites, scarring livestock and contributing nothing to the local economy. A bit extreme, maybe, but I hope you get the point.
For further information about planet-pleasing ways to get out and about, see what those thoughtful chaps at Eco Adventure Sports have to say.
There is a useful website that helps people find eco-friendly ski resorts, or tells you how good or bad is the resort you have in mind. This is run by the Save Our Snow campaign – click on the top left button ‘Snow Resorts’ to find ski resort ratings. If you are going to the USA to ski, this post on the blog Ski Green Guide is worth looking at.
Surfboards are, surprisingly, really rather nasty for the environment: they are made of comparatively toxic materials such as synthetic resins and do not degrade once finished with. This seems to be a minor point until one considers the 750,000 that are made each year. To counter this, there is an eco-surfboard in development down in Cornwall, which uses only natural materials and can be composted when redundant. See Sustainable Composites for more.
Craftbits are worth looking at if you like making things & being crafty, but it is ever-so-slightly cringe-worthy. Still, lots of good ideas for the young or old. The only site selling eco-friendly craft materials that I could find was Eco-craft, but they are limited to card-making materials and accessories. Others have bits and pieces, but nothing amazing. If you know of anywhere good, let us know in the forum.
Nauteco sells eco-friendly marine paints, varnishes and electric outboard engines - obvious combination there. Riptide produces some eco-friendly boat cleaning products, which I guess is great for cleaning boats.
What to do
Carry on having fun, but think a little about how to be kinder to the planet while doing so.
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