The Environmental Impact of Tourism

We all want the chance to see the world's most beautiful places before they're spoiled forever by pollution and overcrowding. But it's beginning to look like tourism itself is part of the problem. Have you ever stopped to consider the environmental impact of tourism? Or worse, what your own tourist tendencies might be doing to the environment? Here are some interesting facts and figures about all aspects of travel.

The Environmental Impact of Tourism: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

The environmental impact of your own traveling begins the moment you leave your house. In terms of which forms of transportation do the most damage, flying is generally considered to be the worst. According to the Sightline Institute, "[P]er mile, powering a jet uses almost as much energy, and emits almost as much climate-changing carbon dioxide, as each passenger would use driving alone in an average car."

Not only that, but jet fuel emissions contain chemical compounds other than carbon dioxide that cause damage to the ozone layer and account for a lot of really nasty air pollution. And if that's not bad enough, jet streams have been found to be able to impact weather.

The Environmental Impact of Tourism: Hotels, Motels, and Everywhere In Between

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, "An average golf course in a tropical country such as Thailand needs 1500 kg of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides per year and uses as much water as 60,000 rural villagers." That's a LOT of water.

In terms of accommodations, hotels must wash and bleach sheets and towels for as many as hundreds of guests every day. Swimming pools are a drain on the local water supply. Many popular resort areas are in climates that don't receive a lot of rainfall, and tourism places a real burden on local resources.

But it's not just water that gets wasted. Landfills are full of those miniature bottles of shampoo and conditioner that you used once and let the maid throw away. All the bleach and chemicals from the hotel laundry go into rivers, lakes, or groundwater, further polluting the area and diminishing an area's fresh water supply.

Hotels also use harsh chemical cleaners in the rooms and must clean far more often than you would at home. Because tourists have come to expect certain amenities, even modest hotels have created an atmosphere of extravagant waste. You're on vacation, so you naturally feel like it's okay to leave the air conditioner on 60 degrees all day! After all, the hotel already had it set that way when you got there.

The Environmental Impact of Tourism: Cruising for Environmental Disaster

Cruise ships get their own mention as a staple of the tourist industry making a huge environmental impact on both the global ecology and their ports of call. Besides being gigantic floating hotels with all the waste that imnples, cruise ships are also highly inefficient energy consumers. According to KAHEA (The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance), "Diesel engines spew out diesel exhaust equivalent to 10,000 cars each day per ship and are kept idling, even when in port."

Furthermore, the average cruise ship carrying 3,000 people produces an amount of waste and sewage equivalent to that of a mid-sized city. Cruise ships are prevented from dumping this waste within a certain distance from land, but there is nothing and no one to stop dumping in the middle of the ocean, where the waste is free to drift around and wreak environmental havoc anywhere the current takes it.

The Environmental Impact of Tourism:Is Any Place Safe?

Antarctica, one of the last remaining true wildernesses on the planet, is not even safe from the environmental impact of tourism. In the 2007-2008 tourism season, over 46,000 people traveled to Antarctica for pleasure. They come mainly on ships, some of which are not properly equipped for the rough journey, and some of which have had accidents resulting in oil spills.

Because many people who travel to Antarctica come to witness its unique wildlife and fragile ecosystem, these very animals and habitats are in danger of being destroyed as tourism increases every year. There is hope for Antarctica, though, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is calling for limits on tourism to Antarctica and better safety measures for ships to prevent spills and dumping.

Resources:

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 2001: www.gdrc.org/uem/eco-tour/envi/index.html

Sightline Institute: www.sightline.org/research/energy/res_pubs/rel_air_travel_aug04

KAHEA: www.kahea.org/ocean/

Cool Antarctica: www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/science/threats_tourism.htm

"Clinton Calls for Stricter Antarctic Tourist Limits" CNN: www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/04/06/clinton.antarctica.tourism/index.html