Is your pet killing the planet?

As a travel writer, I used to joke about the so-called ‘downsides of the job’. The stupidly complex shower-fixture in the five-star Maldivian Paradise. The unexpected commission to go to Denmark in winter. The vague but real sting of disappointment upon realising that the free hotel pillow-chocolate is actually a mint.

But in recent years a genuine and troubling downside has arisen. When I meet someone and tell them what I do, the listener often winces, perhaps with a hint of moral superiority, and says something like: ‘Don’t you feel guilty about your carbon footprint? You’re killing the planet!’

This query pains me because, while I may question a few details of climate change theory, and while I find Just Stop Oil trustafarians as annoying as anyone, I can say that I have seen – with my own travelling eyes – what the last 40 years of urban, demographic and industrial expansion have done to Planet Earth.