Jane Powerson Christmas shopping in New York
If you've already booked your ticket, you're going anyway. And if you haven't booked, it's probably too late to do so. So either way, the decision is made: you're going, or you're not going, and this article won't change the situation. So today, let's just consider this little column as food for thought.
I'm talking about the modern Irish pastime which perfectly exemplifies our bravura economy: flying off to New York for a bout of Christmas shopping. According to David McWilliams, writing in the Sunday Business Postin July, the number of Irish people visiting the Big Apple is increasing by 30 per cent annually. This year, more than 350,000 will fly into that city, mainly for shopping.
Passengers who travel round-trip from Dublin to JFK airport clock up a journey of 6,371 miles (10,253km) - which sends between one and two tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Because jet engines also produce heat-trapping vapour trails, the warming effect of these high-level emissions is actually 2.7 times greater than if they were at the earth's surface (according to George Monbiot in his book, Heat).
A little calculation: if we estimate that a quarter of a million of those 350,000 New-York-bound travellers are shoppers, and if we calculate their emissions, we find that their shopping flights will generate greenhouse gases with the heating capacity of up to 1.35 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
That's a lot of frivolous gas to add to the atmosphere. But, there's another, closer-to-home effect of the overseas shopping spree (or out-shopping, as it's known among those who study these matters). The money that is spent on goods abroad is money that could be spent in Irish shops. Christmas trade is especially important here. As any shopkeeper will tell you, end-of-year gift sales are crucial to the survival of a retail business, and can contribute as much as one-third of the annual takings.
Advocates of sustainability believe that money has more value if it stays closer to home. If it goes off to Saks in Fifth Avenue, it's no good to anyone here. If on the other hand, it lands in Irish shops, it provides local jobs and helps maintain communities (and the more times it is spent in Ireland, the greater its value is).
But back to those carbon dioxide emissions: carbon offsetting is one possible way of dealing with the damage to the environment. Travellers pay a voluntary tariff to a company that plants trees, or engages in some other carbon-scrubbing activity. However, the carbon offsetting industry is fraught with problems, and it's hard to know if outfits are as green as they say they are. Another way that Christmas out-shoppers might salve their consciences would be to give a worthwhile donation to a local community enterprise, or to an environmental organisation - perhaps one that campaigns against excessive air travel.