Atlas Obscura, a community-driven travel and experiences company with a mission to inspire wonder and curiosity about our incredible world, has joined Tomorrow’s Air as the collective’s first Education Partner. Tomorrow’s Air, which is incubated by the Adventure Travel Trade Association, is uniting and empowering a global collective of travelers to support carbon removal via direct air capture. Alongside individual traveler subscriptions, the collective welcomes Education and Action Partners—companies able to remove and store higher volumes of carbon dioxide and support inspiration and education messaging—to engage wider audiences.
Together, the Atlas Obscura and Tomorrow’s Air team will help bring carbon removal understanding and inspiration for action to travelers and travel businesses worldwide. As a kick-off to their collaboration, Atlas Obscura will join Tomorrow’s Air along with sustainable travel leaders Impact Travel Alliance and Natural Habitat Adventures as a co-host for a first-of-its-kind virtual event bringing climate-conscious travelers and travel businesses together to participate in Tomorrow’s Air Convene: Climate Clever Travel, on February 25, 2021.
Recent research indicates that climate and sustainability remain a top issue for consumers even during the global pandemic. In one study of 1.2 million people from 50 countries released by the UNDP, 64 percent of people said that climate change was an emergency. Another study surveying consumers in 26 countries found that the number of people “doing everything possible to minimise their carbon footprint” increased from 63 percent to 69 percent over the past year.
Scientists estimate that carbon dioxide will need to be removed at the scale of over 10 gigatons of CO2 per year by 2050. With the current capacity for removal at less than one gigaton per year, progressive travelers and travel brands understand that the time to act is now, and Tomorrow’s Air provides a simple and affordable method to engage in a measurable way.
Recognizing the urgency around the scale-up of carbon removal and the opportunity presented by Tomorrow’s Air to support a growing travel collective, Atlas Obscura welcomed the partnership as a complementary addition to its existing climate action strategy that includes offsetting 110% of its trips’ carbon footprint.
"We’re delighted that our first partnership of this type is with Atlas Obscura," commented Christina Beckmann, Tomorrow’s Air Co-founder. "I’ve always admired Atlas Obscura as a company with innovation and uniqueness in its DNA, and felt it was a perfect fit for Tomorrow’s Air, which is taking an unconventional approach to supporting the scale-up of carbon removal through direct air capture using a combination of travel inspiration and art, alongside hard science."
"As an organization whose mission is to inspire wonder and curiosity about our shared planet, we have both a responsibility and tremendous opportunity to help protect it," said Mike Parker, who leads Atlas Obscura’s Experiences team. "Supporting climate action is essential to ensuring our trips have a positive impact, and partnering with Tomorrow’s Air is one of the most powerful ways we can do that. We’re tremendously excited to join Tomorrow’s Air in raising awareness of direct air capture carbon removal. Together, we hope to inspire others to look toward the future of climate-conscious travel with us."