Airships and seaships and bears, oh my!

People often ask us what the alternative to long-haul aviation is. "Airships!" we cry. And they look at us like we're suggesting travelling in hollowed-out kittens.

Thankfully, Jamie at Loco2 is big on alternatives. In a series of blogs exploring non-aeroplane long-distance travel solutions (take that, Private Eye), Jamie has explored whether technology can provide a low-carbon means of travelling over oceans and large land masses.

His airships blog reveals that, although the technology is not quite ready, it's getting there. One caveat: as he reveals in a later blog, some of the companies he's linked to are a little... futurist (think missions to Mars and SMI²LE).

But air travel isn't the only way to get about. Boats can be a low-carbon way of getting about, until you fill them with diesel and crap from China. Boats with sails can use windpower, with worked well enough for Columbus and the Vikings. Jamie looks at greening sea travel, and finds that companies are already on it, under the snappy title of "turning wind into profit".

Anyway, check out Loco2, and next time someone tells you they have to fly to New York to go Christmas shopping, you'll know what to say.