Nature's 'doom' is tourist boom
Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 23/12/2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/12/23/eatour123.xml
Global warming has led to a new travel boom as holidaymakers embrace
what tour operators are calling doomsday tourism - the urge to see
some of the world's most endangered sites before they disappear for
ever.
Newly awakened to the perils facing the planet, American tourists are
leading the charge to the melting glaciers of Alaska, Patagonia, the
Arctic and Antarctic, the sinking islands of the Pacific and the
fading glories of the Great Barrier Reef - and their British
counterparts are not far behind.
Ken Shapiro, the editor of TravelAge West, a magazine for travel
agents, said the phenomenon was one of the most significant trends in
travel this year. He added: "I called it the tourism of doom and I got
a lot of responses from people in the travel industry.
"Many people are picking a holiday destination because it is
threatened or endangered by environmental circumstances. We're hearing
it from tour operators and travel agents."
So far even the more aggressive US travel industry has not marketed
sights explicitly as "doomsday" must-sees. But Mr Shapiro said it was
different behind the scenes. "They may not put it in the brochure, but
they say, 'See it before it's gone' when talking to customers."
Dennis and Stacie Woods, from Seattle, revealed last week that they
had been choosing holiday destinations based on the level of
environmental threat they faced. They have climbed the 19,340ft Mt
Kilimanjaro, where scientists say the peak snows could be gone within
15 years. Some 10,000 tourists now climb the Tanzanian mountain every
year.
The Woods have also travelled to the Amazon and kayaked around the
Galapagos Islands. "We wanted to see the islands this year," said Mr
Woods, a lawyer, "because we figured they're only going to get worse."
The polar icecaps, which some scientists say are melting quickly, are
also attracting record numbers of visitors.
According to the International Association of Antarctic Tour
Operators, more than 37,000 tourists visited the continent last year -
double the number five years ago. A third came from America, while the
second largest contingent - one in seven visitors - travelled from
Britain. "There definitely is a rush to see and explore the world
before it changes," said Matt Kareus, of Natural Habitat, which
operates excursions to Antarctica.
Quark Expeditions, a company that runs Arctic and Antarctic tours, is
doubling its capacity and opening up new routes, including one to the
Norwegian Arctic island of Spitsbergen.
Prisca Campbell, Quark's spokesman, said: "There's not enough capacity
to satisfy demand. We always get the question about global warming.
There are many folks who are really concerned. Most of our American
travellers look at the world and say, 'What's left?'?"
The publicity garnered by former US vice-president Al Gore, who won
both the Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, his
2006 film about global warming, has contributed to an interest in
doomsday tourism in America.
"I have just been to the US tour operators' annual conference in
Cancun," said Mr Shapiro. "Last year, when there was talk about green
tourism, people said it was a fad. This year every tour operator is
doing it."
Critics say the rush to "see it before it's gone" is hastening damage
to the environment, encouraging tourists to take flights and other
means of travel that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
A spokesman for the Will Steger Foundation, a conservation group in
Minnesota, said: "It's hard to fault somebody who wants to see
something before it disappears, but it's unfortunate that in their
pursuit of doing that, they contribute to the problem."
But Quark, which takes 7,000 passengers a season to the Arctic and
Antarctic, said a survey of its customers this year found that six out
of 10 claimed their experiences had "motivated me to help protect
environmentally sensitive areas".
Miss Campbell added: "Our philosophy is that you must protect the
environment but you must make sure that people get to see it, because
if you don't see it, you won't value it. People who travel to these
areas are keen to help fight global warming. They go home and tell
their friends they've got to do something."
--
If you disagree with the theories and dogmas of Marxism or Scientific Socialism
then you are a tool of Capitalist interests. If you disagree with the theories
or dogmas of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming then you are a tool of
Capitalistic interests. Notice a pattern here? -- Captain Compassion
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to
escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius
"...the whole world, including the United States, including all that
we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark
Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights
of perverted science." -- Sir Winston Churchill
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
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