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Climate change clock ticks on for tourism
Less than 30 years left for tourism as we know it
The world has about 30 years left before temperatures rise to risky levels if we continue to burn fossil fuels at the present rate, scientists warned in a landmark climate report.
Greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity such as burning fuels like coal and gas were responsible for the majority of the "unequivocal" global warming that occurred over the past 60 years, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found.
Now they are on track to cause substantial shifts in global sea levels, ice cover and other parts of the climate system, which has already undergone changes that the panel said were "unprecedented" for thousands of years.
The UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said the new findings were possible because of advances in understanding about the climate system.
"We had numbers in the previous [IPCC] report but they were based just on very simple analysis," she said. "Knowledge has improved about the way the climate responds to increasing carbon dioxide emissions."
The panel’s full report will not be released until next week but the scientists most responsible for drafting it, and officials from the 100-plus governments in the IPCC, issued a 36-page summary in Stockholm last Friday.
What do these findings mean for tourism? It’s simple – rising water levels will threaten beach resorts, increasing temperatures challenge skiing destinations, freak weather conditions will put a shadow on tourism generally.
What can be done?
The report says to retain a 66 per cent chance of preventing temperatures rising more than 2 degrees from the late 1880s, the world can only emit a further 300 gigatons of carbon. Because about 10 or 11 gigatons of carbon are released each year, that suggests there is less than 30 years before the 800 gigatons limit is breached.
So there will eventually be limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Most probably taxes of one sort or another on the burning of fossil fuels – in other words more expensive travel – particularly by air as airlines represent the majority of tourism-related emissions.
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