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Climate change and tourism: saving our global destinations
Christopher Jones and Daniel Scott, Globe and Mail
Bad weather can ruin a holiday. Global climate change can ruin a holiday destination. This is one of the urgent messages that delegates heard at an international conference on climate change, co-sponsored by the United Nations World Tourism Organization and other international bodies, in Davos, Switzerland, last month.
Tourism has been both a victim and a vector of global climate change. Iconic tourist destinations such as the Great Barrier Reef, the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, the European Alps, the island states of the Seychelles, the Maldives and Mauritius, and the majestic glaciated mountain landscapes from the Rockies to the Andes have all become victims of the rise in global mean temperature of the past 150 years.
But the tourism sector has also become a non-negligible contributor to climate change through greenhouse-gas emissions largely from the transport and accommodation of tourists – as much as 5 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions from human activities, according to the conference’s foundational paper, Climate Change and Tourism: Responding to Global Challenges. Under a “business as usual” scenario, emissions from the rapidly growing global tourism sector were projected to more than double in the next 30 years.
(31 October 2007)
Religious leaders act on climate change
H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A coalition of religious leaders urged Congress on Wednesday to ensure that the poor and most vulnerable are protected from the effects of climate change.
The appeals comes as lawmakers in the coming months plan to consider legislation that would combat global warming.
The representatives from groups such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Association of Evangelicals, National Council of Churches and the Union for Reform Judaism said Congress should require a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
… “While not all of us agree on much,” said the Rev. Michael Livingston, president of the National Council of Churches, “we do agree on the need to protect God’s creation. It has become clear that global warming will have devastating impact on those in poverty around the world.”
The Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals, said 84 percent of evangelicals support mandatory limits on greenhouse gases. He said it is not a matter of political persuasion but “of moral leadership.”
(31 October 2007)
Emirates airline executive rubbishes Gore’s climate film
AFP
SINGAPORE (AFP) – A top executive of Dubai-based carrier Emirates on Thursday rubbished Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary on climate change, saying he did not believe the film’s scientific theory on global warming.
“Don’t talk to me about global warming… I just do not buy it whatsoever,” Maurice Flanagan, Emirates executive vice chairman, said at a regional aviation conference in Singapore.
(1 November 2007)
