Posted on 03/22/2007 8:14:11 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Madrid - Holidaymakers may be ruining their favourite destinations through pollution and greenhouse gases, making the tourism industry one of the world's worst polluters, experts say.
A flight to that pristine beach and a few nights in an air-conditioned hotel room, when repeated on the mass scale of modern tourism, is all it takes to put the holiday business on a polluting par with heavy industries.
"Tourism is unfortunately one of the vectors of (climate) change at the moment and contributes, through its excesses, to the process of global warming," World Tourism Organisation (WTO) director general Francesco Frangialli told an international conference on meteorology in Madrid this week.
In 2006, 842 million people took a holiday in a foreign country and 40% of them flew to their destinations. That's 336 million people, or more than the population of the United States, taking trips which spew greenhouse gases that fuel global warming.
Total air transport still only accounts for two percent of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal greenhouse gas, in the atmosphere, but its contribution is growing and tourism is one of the driving forces behind rising passenger numbers, Frangialli said.
He said 1.1 billion tourists were expected to take trips abroad in 2010, and 1.6 billion by 2020.
Tourism faces 'tragedy'
At the same time, tourism itself was facing "tragedy" if climate change continued unabated, Frangialli said.
As tourists pollute their way around the world, popular destinations such as the pristine but low-lying Maldive islands in the Indian Ocean may disappear as sea levels rise.
Tanzania's famous lakes, a staple of the African tourism industry, will dry up. In Europe's alps the ski season will become shorter, the pistes fewer and harder to find.
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in February that by 2100, global average surface temperatures could rise by between 1.1 C and 6.4 C compared to 1980-99 levels.
The most likely surface temperature rise will be between 1.8 and 4.0 C, it said.
According to a French weather expert, a temperature rise of 1.8 degrees C would translate to 40 fewer days of snowfall at mid-level altitudes of 1 500m.
The WTO has backed an EU proposal to include air travel by 2011 or 2012 in limitations on emissions and creating transferable carbon accounts in a bid to limit the greenhouse effect.
Such measures would encourage airlines to put pressure on manufacturers to produce aircraft which are more fuel-efficient, Frangialli said.
That could mean higher air fares, but some in the travel industry believe tourists would be ready to pay a little more to protect the places they love.
Science-challenged and ignorant journalists just don't get it. The half-life of CO2 in the atmosphere is estimated to be several hundred years. If the human race stopped all emissions of CO2 tomorrow, we'd still have elevated levels of CO2 for centuries. And we'd all be living in mud huts, walking, growing our own gardens, lighting candles at night, and dying at about 35 years due to malnutrition and lack of medicine.
All the feel-good panaceas pitched by the hucksters will have as much effect on global temperatures as pissing in the ocean has on sea level.
You want me to stay in NJ? I don't think I am leaving anytime soon lmao ~P~
Everybody has to stay absolutely still. To save the planet.
Latest Weather Channel Headline:
WTO SMITTEN BY GORE'S GLOBAL FLATULENCE!
You mean everyone but that full of manure Gore?
All I ask is that you let me have my trip to Italy and then you can take away my vacations forever. I swear it.
After he's traveled light years to get to this planet you can't expect him to sit still.
One can hope he will just shut up and maybe global warming might slow down if he did...Did you see Glen Beck last night?
(senile dementia setting in) ;^)
He had on bits of Gore and the senator that was asking Gore questions....think back hard now...~P~
Algore is a fruitcake.
senile dementia .....I don't think so! I knew you would remember.
Better cancel that vacation...NOT!
I've been hearing about the fricking Maldive Islands for about ten years now. Haven't they made any progress yet? I was hoping for some neat TV coverage of when they sank. This rising sea level stuff is a really boring wait.
Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
Ping me if you find one I've missed.
They're still sticking up there. Somebody go shoot an elevation on them and see if they're rising or falling.
Gore Shuts Down Global Tourism Industry
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