Tourists cause global warming

News24.com ^ | 3/22/07 | AFP

[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.

[NormsRevenge]

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Hinode's Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) provides crystal-clear images of features on the sun's surface. This video shows a whirl of a new developing sunspot colliding with an existing spot that explodes into a major solar flare. The solar flare shown in this movie was captured on December 13, 2006. The flare produced high-energy protons that reached the Earth at the time of STS-116 Space Shuttle flight. The flare is shown in 3 different wavelengths.

Image credit: Hinode JAXA/NASA

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Just follow the sun, like tourists...

[Thunder90]

ping

[Calvin Locke]

Reminds me of "The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy".

"...[planet] so concerned with the loss of mass from the volumen of tourists, that you're weighed when entering, and upon leaving, and any gain is surgically removed, so be sure to get a receipt when using the bathroom..."

[NormsRevenge]

Looks like a scenic place to take a trip to..

A grounded iceberg is seen near a penguin rookery in this undated handout photograph from the Australian Antartic Division. The impact of global warming on the vast Southern Ocean around Antarctica is starting to pose a threat to ocean currents that distribute heat around the world, Australian scientists say, citing new deep-water data. REUTERS/Australian Antartic Division/Ho

[TBP]

I thought global warming was caused by liberals.

[endthematrix]

Socialists want to eliminate freedom of movement, to eat locally grown produce and not put undo human pressure on Gaia...

[TigersEye]

I knew it was tourists all along. I have the advantage of living in a tourist town so I could see it coming.

[freedomlover]

We need a War on Tourism

[elkfersupper]

Unrestricted movement, socialization and freedom of association are three things that socialists fear the most.

It encourages the free exchange of ideas, and that is very dangerous to their ideal vision of the way the world should be.

[loreldan]

That's it! Get all the tourists out of my city now! As if I neede another excuse not to like them...

[ken21]

i've always thought it hypocritical that the hollywood, environmentalist left is always on the move, worldwide.

[Blue Collar Christian]

Anything that allows money to be made causes global warming.

The greenies can have the ball in their court on this one.
There are basically two things that can be done about the global warming problem that has the left all constipated:

1. Get the government to completely take over all aspects of our lives. (the liberal solution)

2. Make it profitable to reverse global warming. (the realistic solution, provided, of course, their is a problem)

[TigersEye]

stay where you are ping

[Minn]

"Tourism is unfortunately one of the vectors of (climate) change at the moment and contributes, through its excesses, to the process of global warming,"

or not.

low-lying Maldive islands in the Indian Ocean may disappear as sea levels rise

or not.

Tanzania's famous lakes, a staple of the African tourism industry, will dry up. In Europe's alps the ski season will become shorter,

or not.

a temperature rise of 1.8 degrees C would translate to 40 fewer days of snowfall at mid-level altitudes of 1 500m.

or not.

These people's agenda is becoming clearer and clearer. The article admits that air travel contributes a paltry 2% of all of these deadly gasses. Even still, the idea of commoners having to gall to be mobile.

[Frank_2001]

"The ski season will become shorter, the pistes fewer and harder to find"

Resulting in thousands of piste-off skiers;)

[dasboot]

Outlaw joggers and cyclists. Sedentarianism is the hip way to decrease the carbon assprint.

[TC Rider]

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.

Wow! that means that more people can enjoy the warm weather in their own back yard. Less tourism, lower heating bills, less use of dirty power, the CO2 levels drop, the earth is in balance again. Wow, another climate correcting mechanism.

[gigster]

Eco-terrorist Tourists!

[ApplegateRanch]

"Tourism is unfortunately one of the vectors of (climate) change at the moment and contributes, through its excesses, to the process of global warming,"

This may be what we need to make Libs oppose illegal immigration.

Unless they pass just legislation requiring the coyotes to buy carbon credits from Al Gore.