Travel Blog: Eco Tourism
My Deep-Sea Orbit Into a Love of Place
by Joanna Kakissis | 07.01.09 | 1:41 PM ET
Photo by Joanna Kakissis The deep, clean dive into the sea off Southwestern Greece probably sealed my lifelong attachment to the pristine in places. I was 9 years old and, until then, had only swam in chlorinated swimming pools and muddy river water in landlocked North Dakota. My father had grown up swimming in a secluded beach near the village of Kyparissia as a young orphan and had associated its salty breath and blue-green water with a wanderlust that would turn him dreamy-eyed even as a middle-aged man. To him, travel at its most elemental was about the unadorned land, enlivened by tides and breeze and hulking mountains. He described his childhood beach so lovingly that it almost sounded human.
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Yahoo! BuzzWhen (So-Called) Eco-Travelers Sin
by Joanna Kakissis | 06.11.09 | 4:24 PM ET
Photo by stevendepolo via Flickr (Creative Commons)
When I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Last American Man a few years ago, I was struck by an exchange between the nature-embracing mountain man Eustace Conway and an acolyte whose idea of life-changing sustainability was to turn off the water when she was brushing her teeth.
I wonder if some so-called “eco-travelers” operate the same way. Maybe they book a “life-changing” holiday at an eco-resort in Costa Rica and declare themselves sustainable travelers. But what if they take their unsustainable bad habits with them?
Should Air Travelers Help Pay for the Poor’s Climate Change Woes?
by Joanna Kakissis | 06.10.09 | 3:16 PM ET
It’s been a vexing question since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change revealed that air travel is the world’s fastest-growing source of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Some 16,000 commercial jet aircraft produce more than 700 million tons of CO2 every year, the IPCC says. Though air travel accounts for between two and four percent of global warming attributed to human activities, that amount is expected to grow to 15 percent in 50 years.
Meanwhile, 45 million people are starving or malnourished because of climate change-spurred droughts, floods and other natural disasters. The Global Humanitarian Forum, led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, says 300,000 people a year die because of climate change and that number will reach 500,000 annually by 2030. As negotiators prepare for a major climate summit in Copenhagen this December, they are also trying to figure out how developed countries (who produce the bulk of carbon emissions) can help save developing countries (who are suffering the most because of global warming). Taxing air travel is a favorite idea.
Eco-Travelers and ‘Seafood for Thought’: An Interview with Lindblad Expeditions
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.29.09 | 12:10 PM ET
Photo courtesy of Mathew Lachesnez-Heude The image of sun-kissed travelers eating fresh fish at a seaside tavern has probably graced scores of brochures, postcards and promotional films. But is a craving for this iconic fish dinner contributing to the collapse of 75 percent of the world’s fisheries?
The business of seafood is big: The international trade in fish and fish products rakes in some $50 billion annually. But trawlers are fishing sea life faster than it can replenish itself. As a result, once-bountiful fish such as the Mediterranean bluefin tuna—the so-called king fish of the global sushi industry—will collapse by 2012, according to the World Wildlife Federation.
I spoke with Mathew Lachesnez-Heude, the environmental manager for eco-progressive small-ship tour operator Lindblad Expeditions, about sustainable seafood and the choices travelers can make to help restore the world’s sea life.
From Scenic River to a Stream of ‘Black Gel’
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.20.09 | 1:31 PM ET
The great master of riverine prose, Norman Maclean, was haunted by the crystalline waters of Montana’s Blackfoot River. But the residents of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, are haunted by the stench of the Buriganga, a river so polluted by human and industrial waste that it’s turned into a dead stream of “black gel,” Reuters reports.
Drink a Microbrew, Save the Planet, Taste the Culture
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.19.09 | 1:29 PM ET
I’ve said before that travelers who want to walk the talk of environmentally responsible living must also seek out sustainable food (i.e. no Chilean sea bass!) when on the road. I’m adding locally brewed beer to my list.
Making and transporting beer doesn’t produce nearly as many carbon emissions as boutique wines, which are often flown by overnight air, says Pablo Paster in his column for Treehugger. Still, Paster advises eco-imbibers to drink a local brew over that beloved German beer.
Luring Tourists to a Little Eco-City on the Prairie
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.11.09 | 3:31 PM ET
Two years ago, a massive tornado tore apart more then 95 percent of the buildings in Greensburg, Kansas. Normally, the destruction of this tiny town of 1,400 people would have been just another natural disaster on the high plains, where twisters regularly shred the landscape. But Greensburg’s recovery has made headlines around the world because the town is rebuilding itself as a sustainable, clean-energy “laboratory for eco-friendly living,” according to Greenwire.
Can Eco-Travelers Save the World’s Rainforests?
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.08.09 | 2:19 PM ET
I’ve been thinking about this question since I saw a public awareness video released on YouTube by Prince Charles’s Rainforests Project. His Royal Highness rightly points out that climate change is the “greatest threat facing mankind” and that deforestation worsens global warming. (Burning trees releases their stored CO2.) At home, we can buy coffee tables and cabinetry made from sustainable wood. But what can we do when we travel?
The Littered Beaches of Britain
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.13.09 | 10:13 AM ET
As depressing as I find many British beaches, I was appalled to read that visitors are practically treating them like landfills. Reuters reports that the Marine Conservation Society, who recruited 5,000 volunteers to help clean up the shores, discovered an average of 2,195 pieces of trash per kilometer of beach—an increase of 110 percent since 1994. Food wrappers and cigarette butts make up about a third of the litter, the group says. Trash dumping on British beaches has doubled in the last 15 years to reach the highest level in history.
A Solar-Powered City to Debut in Florida
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.10.09 | 12:23 PM ET
Photo by albertheaps via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Hey, if the United Arab Emirates can build a giant eco-city in the desert, then sunny Florida should do just fine with a solar-powered town near Fort Myers, in the southwestern portion of the state.
Reuters reports that the developers of the planned $2 billion Babcock Ranch—an environmentally friendly city of 19,500 houses and some six million square feet of space including retail and offices—say it will run on what they bill as the world’s largest photovoltaic solar plant.
Let’s just hope the Sunshine State’s sun city isn’t underwater by the end of the century.
World’s Poorest Countries Want Levy on Airline Tickets
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.08.09 | 2:16 PM ET
Rich nations produce most of the world’s CO2 emissions but poor countries often pay the price, suffering through worsening droughts, intense flooding, rising sea levels, crop failures and pollution. Sometimes, their citizens are forced to become economic refugees, and leave their homes altogether.
So in the name of climate justice, representatives of the world’s 49 poorest countries told negotiators at UN climate talks in Bonn that air passengers should each pay a $6 emissions levy per flight, The Guardian reports. This could raise about $10 billion a year that poor nations could use to help adapt to climate change.
Empire State Building Goes Green
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.08.09 | 10:35 AM ET
The trendsters have spoken: Either you’re a greenvolutionary or you’re just another energy-sucking monument. So the Empire State Building, helped by $20 million from the Clinton Climate Initiative, aims to become the Art Deco landmark with a LEED rating, according to Reuters. The eco-makeover will include upgrading the building’s 6,500 windows and adding eco-friendly heating and air conditioning systems, insulation and energy-efficient lighting. The whole project is expected to cost about $100 million and is intended to cut energy consumption in the 102-story skyscraper by 38 percent.
Obama Administration Wants Controls on Antarctic Tourism
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.07.09 | 2:30 PM ET
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wants to limit landings in Antarctica from ships carrying a lot of tourists in an effort to save the continent from further environmental degradation, Reuters reports. Speaking to a joint session of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting and the Arctic Council, Clinton also said the U.S. is offering new rules for lifeboats, to better protect passengers in stranded or sinking cruise ships. One cruise ship was already stranded this past winter, while some 150 crew and passengers had to be rescued in late 2007 after their ship struck ice and sank.
Saving ‘Cleopatra’s Beach’ and a Jewel of the Aegean
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.03.09 | 11:15 AM ET
I’m not surprised that the beautiful Gulf of Gökova off the southwestern coast of Turkey has practically been loved to death. The Aegean blue water and soft beach sand (which Mark Antony allegedly imported to Gökova from Egypt for Cleopatra) is the stuff of sea-loving tourists’ dreams.
Over the years, yacht tours polluted the bay, illegal fishing depleted its marine life, and all those sunbathers started eroding that queenly beach sand. The European-funded Gökova Integrated Coastal Management program banned the sunbathers from the beach in 2007 and is now working to support sustainable fishing, protect the bay’s natural flora and fauna, and keep the Gökova waters clean. (Via Treehugger)
The ‘Golden Age’ of Green Travel
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.01.09 | 12:07 PM ET
That would be right now, despite the economic recession, says National Geographic Adventure’s eco tourism expert Costas Christ. Consider the evidence: Airlines are testing clean biofuels, top tourism organizations are battling climate change and defining sustainability standards and the Marriott Corporation is leading the charge to protect some 1.4 million acres of Amazon rain forest. Most notably for the humble traveler, the small outfitters and family-owned lodges of the early years of eco tourism are regaining their influence over the “$500-a-night jungle resorts” that have put eco travel out of financial reach for many, Christ says.
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