It’s Getting Hot In Here

Just this past week in Delhi, I spoke to an Indian friend gearing up for vacation who is heading to Gangotri glacier in the north of India with his young son. His logic was pretty terrifying — Bangkok, he said, would still be around in 10 years; Singapore will still be shining and clean; the Western Ghats (most of them) will still be luscious forests; some beaches in Goa will still be here. The usual Indian upper class tourist destinations just don’t offer the same urgency. He told me that he’s just not sure his son will get another chance to see the glaciers.

Gangotri is the glacier that feeds the river Ganges, the lifeblood, both spiritually and agriculturally of India. The Himalayan glaciers, many say, provide the water to feed more than 40 percent of the world’s population, and are predicted to be gone in less than 50 years. Is this Climate Tourism? A terrifying and defeatist last ditch attempt to visit the last years of the most climate vulnerable places? Is Alaska seeing a tourist peak, not only because Sarah Palin has told us just how close it is to Russia, but because we’re not sure how much longer the permafrost to support our cars will be there? Is the Great Barrier Reef seeing tourism peak? What about Bangladesh? The Maldives? I’m only half joking. The consideration of carbon tourism is defeatist. It’s depressing. And it’s carbon intensive.

So when the UN World Tourism Organization (the other WTO!) announced that this year’s theme for World Tourism Day was Responding to the Threat of Climate Change, I wasn’t surprised. Again, like World Health Day calling on UN to take action to protect health, the World Tourism Organisation called on the tourism industry to more quickly move towards carbon neutrality and the UN to take firm action on the issue. But there’s even more to it than that! Continue for more…

Francesco Frangialli, Secretary-General of the UNWTO said:

Our call to action is hence to change habits and position renewable energy at the forefront of international response by promoting the action-oriented Davos Declaration Process, encouraging tourism stakeholders to adapt, to mitigate and use new technology and secure financing for the poorest countries to face the challenge of climate change.

It’s actually a double sided coin. Eco-tourism benefits have given communities additional reasons to protect their ecological resources, including their coasts. And many tourists to these precious ecological destinations see the fragility of the world around them and the impacts of their actions. Plus, Tourism Industry may be able to drive other industries to action. Even in New England, many have been driven to action on climate change mitigation because of fear that the skiing and foliage tourism industry will nosedive with climate changes. In fact, just last week, the University of Vermont released a preliminary report on their findings that climate change will reduce foliage brilliance and change timings. So maybe tourism can help spur action.

At the same time, the UNWTO’s 2008 study, Climate Change and Tourism: Responding to the Global Challenges, showed that the industry produces 4.9 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, primarily through long-haul flights! Regardless of how green we make our hotel buildings, how few towels are washed by hanging them on the back of the door, the solar water to heat the jacuzzis, luxury tourism (or any tourism) is carbon intensive. There will still be flights. And offsets. Can the UNWTO really find a solution such that every tourist actually has to fund the creation of a renewable energy or forestation project in the country they visit? Or, as Benito Muller of Oxford has suggested, the $5 international air travel levy that could fund adaptation projects on a massive scale. 3 years ago, a similar program was launched to fund medicines for HIV and AIDS.

From both sides of the coin, it’s clear that tourism and climate change are really interconnected: tourism does represent a flow of capital from one location to another (potentially to fund climate solutions, but also generally to create jobs and industries, which when lost to climate changes will really affect these communities) and tourism also represents an almost guaranteed production of carbon emissions. Unless, of course, its a stay-cation, a chance to support your LOCAL economy and explore your neighborhood. A staycation doesn’t mean secluding yourself from the world, but sharing moments and experiences with your community.

The UNWTO, of course, didn’t take World Tourism Day as a chance to promote staycations, but that doesn’t mean I won’t! Look who’s talking, I’ll admit. But I don’t need to see the glaciers to know they’re melting, though I hope I will before they’re gone, and home in Delhi, the upcoming holiday is a perfect time for a nice long staycation…