A New Kind of Travel: Climate Tourists

The Wall Street Journal runs a slightly snarky but undeniably fresh article about a new kind of tourism:

Global warming has given rise to a new niche in the
booming eco-tourism business: climate tourists. These visitors seek out
places where a long-term warming trend — subject of a global summit
hosted by the United Nations this week — is starting to have a
discernible impact. Yet some say there’s a big irony in this kind of
travel: Any trip by train, plane or cruise ship pumps carbon dioxide
into the atmosphere and potentially contributes to the warming of the
planet.

"What’s the point of your trip to the Maldives if the
end result is that it will be drowned" because emissions from
eco-tourists’ jets contribute to global warming and rising seas, says
Jeff Gazzard of Aviation Environmental Federation, a United Kingdom
group fighting to curtail airplane emissions. The Maldives, a string of
islands in the Indian Ocean, sit about three feet above sea level and
are at risk if warming effects raise ocean levels.

More than 1.5 million tourists now visit the arctic
each year, up from one million in the early 1990s, according to the
U.N. Longer and warmer summers keep arctic seas freer of ice flows, so
cruise ships can visit places that were once inaccessible — raising
other environmental concerns.

Here’s the Hotel Arctic in Ilulissat, Greenland, where scientists believe the iceberg that sunk the Titanic originated.