You’d think Prince Charles would have had advisers on this impending debacle – urging His Royal Highness not to get on a private jet next month to embark on a 16,000-mile environmental crusade through South America.

Now, the UK Daily Mail is nicknaming Charles the “Prince of Hypocrites” – not good press for a environmental mission that intends to focus on issues of environmental sustainability and climate change as well as bridging the gap between Britain and South America. Charles and Camilla will arrive for their spring tour in Chile on March 8 and end their trip with a visit to the Galapagos Islands in an Airbus A319, leaving a carbon footprint of 322 tons.

The prince’s deputy private secretary, Clive Alderton, defended Charles’ decision to fly privately, saying in a statement, “In this time of economic uncertainty we are extremely mindful of the cost and sought advice from the Government, who confirmed they wanted the trip to proceed given the importance of the strategic priorities that the visit would address and the bilateral diplomatic relations it would strengthen. We looked at all available options of travel but the impracticability of moving around the region on scheduled flights meant that we had to take the charter option.”

Airplanes contribute about 3% of global carbon emissions, and people traveling by air is actually increasing at about 5% a year, meaning numbers of air-passenger miles will more than triple by 2030. When you consider the amount of carbon being pumped into the atmosphere by these thousands of flights, it’s not just leaving a bigger carbon foot print when you travel regularly; it’s more like putting on a pair of boots made of carbon, and kicking the planet in the face. Repeatedly.

But some of us can’t imagine giving up traveling! If you’re like me and concerned about how your travels will affect the environment and local economies, there’s no better way to control the impacts of your trip than planning the trip with the environment in mind. Search a directory of global destinations at Planeta.com, or, if you already know where you want to go, find a hotel that meets the standards of the Green Hotels Association.

If you’re traveling by plane, car or bus you can lessen the blow by offsetting your travel emissions. Making a donation to renewable energy initiatives, you can counterbalance some of the effects of greenhouse gases that were released during your trip. Web sites like Climate Care have carbon calculators that will determine your atmospheric footprint and how you can offset it.

Hopefully airplanes and other vehicles will soon operate with greener, more eco-friendly sources of energy. A British study group, OMEGA (Opportunities for Meeting the Environmental Challenge of Growth in Aviation) is studying a number of technological and other factors, including airplane design, sustainable fuels and open rotor-propelled aircraft that reduce fuel burn, to assess how they could mitigate aircraft pollution.