Real impact of tourism on global warming exposed: the biggest threat the industry faces

Important new book by climate academic outlines both climate dangers and tourism carbon management best practice cases – VISION to cover weekly in depth

“Carbon Management in Tourism” is to be published in early December.

In this latest book, Professor Stefan  Gossling  of Sweden’s Lund University spotlights a number of critical issues and dangerous misconceptions, he claims that:

• The 17.6bn international and domestic tourist arrivals forecast by 2020 will pose a real danger to global warming
• That tourism would proportionally be responsible for at least 13,200 deaths, seriously affect the livelihoods of 14.3 million people, and produce economic losses of US$5.5 billion as a result of its emissions. Annually.
• That there is little evidence of strategic planning by the global tourism industry to deal with climate change
• That it is possible for tourism businesses to reduce emissions considerably, by as much as 10-20 per cent, mostly with low-cost measures with short payback times.
• That the amount of climate change potential has been understated and that we are in much more danger than we think

Says Professor Gossling: “Climate change is one of the single most important global environmental issues facing the world today and is emerging as a major topic in tourism studies.”

“Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries; it both contributes to, and will be notably affected by, climate change. Given the emerging global legal frameworks to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, growing costs of carbon and pro-environmentally orientated customers, carbon management in tourism is a necessity.

He underlines tourism’s responsibilities, saying that: “Tourism must take responsive actions to enable travel and tourism to deliver the peak experiences that tourists seek with a lower carbon footprint.”

Moreover he claims that the upcoming problems are glossed over: “It is not too difficult to see why there is reluctance to engage in mitigation: in the USA, the country solely responsible for about a quarter of global emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), ambitions by the Obama administration to initiate significant cuts in emissions have stopped short in Congress, where the country’s industrial lobby has exerted considerable pressure to counter what is (correctly) perceived as a threat to the emission-intense US-American lifestyle.”

“The same lobbyists are also involved in various actions to question and discredit climate science – a process supported by a conflict-hungry media –leading parts of the population to believe that there is no scientific consensus on climate change as a phenomenon, and uncertainty regarding its human causes.”

Professor Gossling, is an acclaimed specialist in tourism and climate change issues, a member of the UN IPCC, and is co-author of the classic work ‘Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in the Tourism Sector: Frameworks, Tools and Practice’’, (published by UNEP, Oxford University, UNWTO and WMO in 2008).

Professor Gossling emphasizes that the rising price of fossil fuels will have some beneficial effect, both reducing the level of passengers and forcing transportation companies to economise on energy.

Moreover the book highlights some 33 good practice case studies from the move to low carbon destinations through awareness-raising campaigns.

In the coming weeks TravelMole Vision on Sustainable Tourism will be publishing one weekly synopsis of a good practice case history from ‘Carbon Management in the Tourism Industry’ and will be offering a weekly subject from the book for an open and comprehensive debate.

Further details of the book are available at: www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415566339/

Valere Tjolle
Get free sustainable tourism reports from Vision on Sustainable Tourism HERE

Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite: EXTRA SPECIAL OFFER at: www.travelmole.com/stories/1144671.php