Tourism and Environment Issues - Essay Example

Order 158459 TOURISM AND ENVIRONMENT. Section Theoretical background. Tourism is traveling for predominantly recreational or leisure purposes, and also refers to the provision of services in support of this act1. Earlier definition of tourism was provided by the Australian economist Herman Von.Schullard in 1910.According to him," it is a sum total of operations, mainly of economic nature, which directly relate to the entry, stay and movement of foreigners inside and outside a certain country, city or region2. According to Hunziker and Krapf"tourism is the sum of the phenomena and relationship arising from the travel and stay of non-residents in so far as they do not lead to permanent residence and are connected with any earning activity3 Environment refers to a complex of surrounding circumstances, conditions, or influence in which a thing is situated or is developed4 .Climate Change means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods5. _______________ 1. (Free encyclopedia, www.en.wikipedia.org 2. Ibid 3. W.Hunziker and Krapf (1941) rundriss der allegemeinmen Frendenver kehrslehre. 4. Ibid 5. Dr. D.N.Tiwari, Environmental Law, 2nd edition, 2002) The relationship between environment tourism on climate change means how the environment and tourism are both interrelated and interdependent. The changes that are brought by climate change affect both tourism and environment. Tourism provides a link between economic development and the environment. Tourism being an industry earns or generates income. This income can be converted to protect and conserve scenic and biologically valuable areas. It can further generate visitor payback into the management of these areas thus economic fragile communities.The success of tourism depend on environment. When the environment deteriorates due to climate change tourism also decline. Overtime the relationship between environment and tourism has developed. Tourism industry impacts environment both negatively and positively. The environment is impacted negatively by the release of untreated liquid waste from the activities of hotels and restaurants. Further air and noise emissions produced from tourism industry impact the environment. The noise is generated from the coastal constructions which are used to host tourists. Once these constructions are on dust is emitted which eventually settles on coastal waters affecting the marine environment. However, tourism industry as well contributes to the environment positively. The development of appropriate and new technologies has been a result of tourism-environment interaction. For instance beaches and hotels have to develop new technology of hygiene so as to meet the internationally accepted environmental standards. Further revenues and taxes derived from tourist related activities provide for the preservation and protection of natural resources like forests. Tourism can sometimes provide impetus for the conservation of natural resources. For example the development of Graeme bird sanctuary in Barbados. 6 Nature heritage tourism contributes to the conservation of natural resources and promotes socio-economic advancement of local communities. This may drive a sense of ownership and empowerment among the nationals.7 Therefore tourism and environment play a key role in the development and growth of a nation. In the recent years tourism has become the main industry that earns large income to those nations that maintain this industry. It also contributes to the maintenance of our environment. However, tourism and environment can only contribute to sustainability if all measures are taken to curb climate change which negatively impacts the two. Section 2: Background Information Global climate change is probably the most severe threat to our environment and tourism industry. In particular tourism is the largest growing industry in the world .It has a significant environmental, cultural, social and economic impact, both positive and negative. In undertaken responsibility, tourism can be a positive force for sustainability conservation and environmental protection .If unplanned, it can socially, culturally and economically be disruptive and have a devastating effect on fragile environments. Climate changes pose a challenge to sustainable tourism. The effects of climate change to the environment and tourism sector have been felt. These effects like increased beach __________ 6. www.sia-acp.org/acp 7. Ibid erosion, extreme heat waves, lack of reliable snow cover in some ski resorts show that it is difficult to have a sustainable and flourishing tourism industry in future. Popular and lucrative holidays are as a result of attractive and deal destinations. These often occur in environmentally fragile areas that are biologically significant and rich in wildlife. Therefore there is need to have a common goal, the long term preservation of the natural environment in order to achieve sustainability. Today sustainable tourism is unachievable ideal due to air travel which affects, climate change. Our aircrafts produce carbon dioxide which is the main cause of climate change. The United Kingdom (U.K) is the leading country in aviation industry. The Government of U.K forecast that C02 from aircraft is expected to rise to 70-80 million tones by 2030 8 To reduce this problem of climate change there is need to convert our motor- vehicles to pollution free. Various governments and relevant agencies should ensure that these vehicles which use petrol and diesel are converted to use natural gas which reduces carbon dioxide. Most developed countries have imposed their train network however; some of them like Germany, Britain, and France etc are using electric trains which reduce pollution. India which has been left behind has started to convert their trains from using diesel to electricity especially the long-distance trains. The department of energy in the United States is supporting research to develop bio-fuels such as bio-diesel and ethanol made from plant materials 9. With the full fuel __________ 8. Hal crow Technical Note year 2000, 02 forecast 6th October 200 9. www.nesea.org cycle taken into consideration, those fuels offer strong carbon emissions reductions because the plants preferably low impact no till plants, take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere when growing. In general if all these measures are not solved, tourism sector will continue to get a blow. Measures should be taken to curb climate change which directly impact tourism sector. Some human activities such as deforestation should be avoided .This causes a long-term effect to both the environment and tourism. Forests attract rainfall and if they are destroyed then the world will turn out to be a desert which will affect sustainability. Section 3: Literature review Various researchers have done research on this area "Relationship between tourism and environment on climate change" The earliest research recognizing the potential that CO2 warming affects tourism appeared in the late 1980's (McBoyle and Wall 1987), especially in Canada and often in relation to individual National parks10 Research carried out by Finnish Environment Institute entitled "Nature based Tourism and adoption to climate change" shows that more people especially the entrepreneurs who have invested on tourism are aware of climate change and the consequences it has to their tourism industry. Overall most interviewees were able to identify the long effects caused by climate change on Tourism and Industry 11 ____________________ 10. www.icis.unimaas.nl/eclat 11. Sievanen, T.T, K. Neuvonen, et al, A 2005. Nature based tourism and adaptation to climate change-FINADAPT working paper 11, Finnish Environmental Institute, Helsinki. Another research carried out recently by United Nations (U.N) 2007, shows how rising temperatures could revolt Latin America's glaciers within 15 years and causes food shortages affecting 130 million people across Asia by 2050 and wipe out Africa's wheat crop. The research carried out by hundreds of scientists, outlined dramatic effects of climate change including sea levels, the disappearance of species and intensifying natural disaster. It said that 30% of the world's coastlines which are major tourism areas could be lost by 2080.12 A repeat study carried out in New York to ascertain how much gaseous substances the city produces, found out that it is produces nearly 1% of the nation's green house gas emissions. It put it on par with Ireland and Portugal. The study was ordered by Mayor Bloomberg to assess the city's progress in reducing its greenhouse emissions by 30% by 2030. The study was carried out by Mayor's office of long-term planning and sustainability.13 Further, a research carried out in Helsinki Finland, shows that Finland has warmed by about 0.7% during 20th century and new scenarios 14 indicate that a mean annual warning of between 2.4 and 7.4 0C in combination with increased annual precipitation by 6 to 37% can be expected during the next 80 years. Such climate changes are expected to have significant impact on different faces of the natural environment tourism and society in Finland. _____________ 12. Ap-Associated press, April 2007 (www.enviroment.fi/default.asp) 13. Ap-Associated press; (www.msnbc.msn.com) 14. 14. J.K Tuomenvirta H, Finland during the 21st century, Boreal Environment Research The research carried out by Friends of the Earth research, based on Governments own data shows how the ministers' airport expansion plan means that climate changes emission from the UK Aviation industry wills soar by 350% from 1990 to 2030.15 According to the study carried out in Spain to assess the impact of climate change on tourism (Cicero Working Paper 2007:02) tourism in Spain will undergo major changes in the coming decades. The study suggests that summer tourism will decrease by the year 2080 compared to current situation because of excessive temperatures in the most parts of Spain. Spring and autumn will rise up but they will not cover the loss suffered in summer holidays.16 Therefore climate change will impact the tourism and the environment directly. Tourists will find the environment not conducive for them and they will prefer to spend their holiday in other parts of Europe like Northern Europe which will not be harsh to them. Section 4: Analysis Sustainability is the ability to achieve continuing economic prosperity while protecting the natural systems of the planet and providing a high quality of life for its people 17. Achieving sustainability requires the involvement of everyone taking responsibility for solving the problems of today and tomorrow. Sustainability can only be achieved if emission of carbon dioxide to the air is curbed. If this mess is solved then we can have a good environment for human habitation __________ 15. www.grida.org 16. CICERO Working Paper 2007:02, the impact of climate change on tourism in Spain (www.cicero.uio.no) 17. United States Environmental protection Agency, (www.epa.gov) as well as planets and animals'. Further to achieve sustainability we must learn to conserve our natural resources like water, land, planets etc.The success of natural tourism specifically depends ion proper use of natural resources. Our forests should be conserved so that they can provide fresh atmosphere as well as tourists attraction areas. Good environment promotes Sustainability in the sense that there will be fewer diseases and to other complications that comes with unhygienic conditions. Sustainability can also be promoted by achieving economic prosperity if tourism industry is well maintained. Tourism itself is a source of income if it can be put into various uses including provision of an improved standard of living as well as maintaining the environment. To achieve this, all agencies and governments concerned should promote clean energy production and use. Section 5: Recommendations and conclusion It is the responsibility of every individual, various agencies and governments to take a leading role in preserving the environment. In order to achieve this there is need to have improved understanding, better planning and technology in order to do it. The climate change research should be carried out regularly so as to ascertain the extent of the problem. Fossils fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil provide most of the energy used by industry and consumers. These non-renewable sources of energy impact land, water, and air across geographical scales which are directly responsible for large proportions of the emission of C02, N0x S02, non-methane and CH4 (methane) emissions. To achieve sustainability will require that energy be produced by cleaner and more efficient technologies, be used more efficiently with greater conservation and be developed from renewable resources. Further human activities such as deforestation also impact the environment as well as tourism. It contributes directly to climate change. Therefore to win the war against climate change all human activities to climate change need to be curbed. In conlusion, there is need and urgency for all stakeholders to actively rise up and participate in the campaign against climate change as it impacts the environment and tourism. Unless this is done, then the world will never be habitable place tomorrow. The future generation will only prosper if there is a concrete foundation today. The past will haunt them even if they were not part of it and they will stumble and fall. It is therefore a collective responsibility for each and everyone to take this issue seriously and handle it with all the urgency it deserves. Bibliography 1. Wigley, T. M. L., and S. C. B. Raper. 1991. Detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect on climate. Climate change: science, impacts and policy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England. 2. Ainley, D. G., R. R. Veit, et al. (1995). "The occurrence of marine birds in the California Current: Patterns related to oceanographic climate. 3. Dr. D.N.Tiwari, 2002, Environmental Law, 2nd edition, Central Law Agency, New-Delhi. 4. United States Environmental protection Agency, (www.epa.gov) 5. CICERO Working Paper 2007:02, the impact of climate change on tourism in Spain (www.cicero.uio.no) 6. www.grida.org 7. Baker J. Teal (2000) Direct Effects of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration Global Change Biology. 8. Ap-Associated press, April 2007 (www.enviroment.fi/default.asp) 9. Johansson, T. B., H. Kelly, A. K. N. Reddy, and R. H. Williams, editors. 1993. Renewable energy: sources for fuels and electricity. Island Press, Washington, D.C 10. Prentice, I. C. 1992, Climate change and long-term vegetation dynamics. Chapman & Hall, New York. 11. D.C Schneider, S. H. 1990. Global warming: are we entering the greenhouse century Vintage Books, New York 12. G. J. Jenkins, and J. J. Ephraim, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 1990, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England 13. Free encyclopedia, www.en.wikipedia.org 14. www.sia-acp.org/acp 15. Meira Filho, B. A. Callander, N. Harris, Climate change 1995--the science of climate change. The second assessment report of the IPCC: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England 16. Bramwell, B., 1996, Sustainable Tourism Management Education in Europe, Tourism Management 17. Bale JS, Jones TH, and Gibbons D (1996) Impacts of climate change. (London) 18. Washington, W. M., and C. L. Parkinson. 1986. An introduction to three-dimensional climate modeling. Oxford University Press, New York 19. www.icis.unimaas.nl/eclat 20. J. Bruce, H. Lee, and E. Haites, Climate change 1995--economic and social dimensions of climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England. 21. Trenberth, K. E., editor. 1992. Climate system modelling. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England. Read More