Alastair Sawday's 
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Travelling by ferry
Submitted by steve on 13 December, 2006 - 14:47.
Eco Dilemma
I know it's ungreen to fly, but this has left me with some dilemmas. Can anyone help?
1. I've long been planning a no-fly trip to Japan, which means 7 days on the trans-siberian railway. OK, but there's then a 36 hour ferry to Japan. Is it green to take this ferry? If not, is there a freighter cruise that does the same route? The only other option I can think of is a train to Shanghai and a freighter cruise from there.
2. What about other ferries, eg to Ireland, from Italy to Greece or Egypt, to Norway etc. Are these green?
3. Do river cruisers travel slowly enough to be green, or are they as bad as ocean cruisers?
I'm new to this site so my apologies if these are old questions.
Which ferries are ok?
Hi Steve,
Your plan sounds great, congratulations.
Ferries are usually far less polluting than aircraft; you can read a lot about it on an off line, and the topic is usually connected to short-haul journeys. However, yours is a much longer journey. I dont't have any clear stats on the comparison on carbon emissions on such a journey; I will try to find out something specific, and if I do find out, I will post it for you here. Which company are you planning to sail with? Do you depart from Vladivostok?
If you do make your journey, I will be very interested in knowing about your experience, and I would be grateful if you can write to me about it. You can get in touch with me at mail@idontfly.com or find me on www.idontfly.com. Else, you can maybe tell us about your journey it in this forum!