Go Green

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The DOT (Dept. of Transportation) Says It Will Test the Waters by Ben Fried July 9, 2008
After dropping hints that 'Free Bike Fridays' on Governors Island could serve as a prelude to something bigger, DOT today announced its intention to "explore the concept of bike share and investigate the feasibility of instituting such a program in New York City." The agency has issued a Request for Expressions of Interest [PDF] to determine what a bike-share program in New York might look like, and how it would function.

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Parisians may have gone Vélib mad, but cycling in the city can be scary. Resident Agnès Poirier finds a quiet route via the best bistros and markets The novelty factor may have worn off but the romance between Parisians and le Vélib continues. Back from their long summer holidays, 215,000 of my fellow Parisians have renewed their annual subscription to the city-wide bicycle scheme. These, together with other occasional cyclists, such as tourists, make up the 100,000 daily rentals. Needless to say, the scheme is a "succès formidable".By Agnès Poirier The Guardian, October 18 2008.

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The skiing industry is frantically, forlornly, trying to stave off the deleterious effects of climate change with a series of measures that will only exacerbate the problem in the long run. The arrival of snow cannons at virtually every major resort over the past decade is the most worrying of trends. Working through the night as the skiers' attention turns to the delights of schnapps and fondue, these spray particles of water mixed with nucleating agents into the freezing air to create a blanket of artificial snow. A lack of the real stuff has forced the industry to rely on these machines, but their environmental impact is considerable.

Skiers are accused of destroying the very wilderness they love. We asked two experts for their views on the sport's impact, and got two very different responses. (See also the review of Hickman's "Final Call" on this blog.)By Leo Hickman GUARDIAN UK September 28 2008

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Growth in population and tourism contaminate the islands' environment with alien species and pollution. But some say tourists, not citizens, should be kept out.
By Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, October 8, 2008

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, ECUADOR - A few weeks ago, 19 Ecuadorean citizens detained on these world-renowned islands were marched onto a plane and sent back to the continent under armed guard. Their crime? Illegal migration. So far this year, the government has expelled 1,000 of its citizens from the Galapagos, a living laboratory of unique animal and plant species, who were there without residency and work permits. It has also "normalized" 2,000 others, in effect giving most of them a year to leave.

READ MORE AT at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-galapagos8-2008oct08,0,363527.story

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ScienceDaily (Sep. 29, 2008) — Tourism on Antarctica is increasing and that can form a threat for the vulnerable South Pole area. Research from Maastricht University provides a possible solution: market the visitor rights to the highest bidder.
READ MORE AT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080926100703.htm

Interview with Susan Fox Rogers, Author of Antarctica: Life on the Ice with Jim Benning, World Hum, 2007 READ MORE AT http://www.worldhum.com/qanda/item/susan_fox_rogers_antarctica_changes_you_20071127/

Climate Change Will Destroy Penguin Colonies, Says World Wildlife Fund Report, Oct. 9, 2008
Half to three-quarters of major Antarctic penguin colonies face decline or disappearance if global temperatures are allowed to climb by more than 2°C. A new WWF report – 2°C is Too Much – shows that the colonies of 50 per cent of the iconic emperor penguins and 75 per cent of the Adélie penguins are under threat.

Climate change models forecast that a 2°C temperature rise above pre-industrial level could be a reality in less than 40 years, producing a strong reduction in the sea ice cover of the Southern Ocean which is an essential nesting and feeding ground for Emperor and Adélie penguins.

A reduction in the sea ice is also likely to have a knock-on effect on the abundance of krill, which is a vital food source for penguins.
 Juan Casavelos, WWF Antarctica Climate Change Coordinator said: “Penguins are very well adapted to living in the cold and extreme conditions of Antarctica, so the continued increase in global temperature and resulting loss of feeding areas and nesting zones for their chicks has already led to notable reductions in their populations.

“If temperatures increase by another two degrees these icons of the Antarctic will be seriously threatened.”
READ MORE AT http://www.wwf.org.nz/index.php/about_us/media_releases/entry/climate_change_to_devastate_or_destroy_many_penguin_colonies/

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Finally some good news…To protect Sumatra's remaining forests, a declaration was endorsed Sept. 2008 by provincial governments across Sumatra as well as the Indonesian government. This commits the governors of 10 Sumatran provinces, along with the Indonesian Ministries of Forestry, Environment, Interior and Public Works, to restore critical ecosystems in Sumatra and protect the island's amazing biodiversity. The governors will now work together to develop plans that will serve as the basis for future sustainable development on the island.

READ MORE AT http://passport.panda.org/campaigns/campaign.cfm?uNC=52359781&uCampaignId=1801

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Greenland’s Ilulissat glacier, one of the most active in the northern hemisphere, is now smaller than it has been in 150 years. The ice in some places on the coast is now melting four times faster than before, says Abbas Khan, a Dane who studies the movements of Greenland's glaciers at the Danish Space Centre.

Glaciers are considered very sensitive indicators of climate change. International attention usually focuses on the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica. Should they melt, the sea level might rise considerably. Moreover, the system of global ocean currents might change. In Europe, the Alps get special attention because they are popular for skiing and tourism in general. Glaciers in Austria and Switzerland are already being covered with plastic in summer, in an effort to slow down melting, by protecting the ice from the sun.

Even glaciers close to the equator are affected by global warming, however. Although they cover a total area of only 2,500 square kilometres, they are important. There are currently 18 glacier regions in Peru. According to the Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales, a body of the Ministry of Agriculture, the total area they cover declined by 22 % from 1970 to 1997. Latin America, by the way, is only a minor contributor to global warming. Barely four percent of worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas, originate in this region. The USA, however, accounts for almost a third, and Europe for more than a quarter of global emissions. September 23, 2008, Agence-France Presse

READ MORE AT http://www.cop15.dk/en/servicemenu/News/GreenlandsIllulisatGlacierMeltingFaster.htm

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How much tourism can a delicate landscape — or globe — sustain? NY Times October 6, 2008, By James Kanter

BARCELONA — The next time you see cranes and bulldozers at a congested airport, consider the following: There will be 1.6 billion tourists traveling the globe by the end of the next decade. That is nearly twice as many than at present – and it could have a profound impact on heavily visited parts of the globe. “Tourism is an extraordinary growth industry,” Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, said on Monday at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona. He said it was the responsibility of operators — from hoteliers to travel companies — as well as governments to ensure that sites are sustainable. READ MORE AT http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/is-there-any-such-thing-as-green-tourism/?pagemode=print

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The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study. It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion. The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide. The study, headed by a Deutsche Bank economist, parallels the Stern Review into the economics of climate change.10 October 2008, By Richard Black, Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Barcelona

READ MORE AT http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7662565.stm

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Jordan et al. (2005) used aerial photographs of the Cotopaxi Volcano ice cap (Ecuador) to quantify the evolution of the surface area. The results show that glaciers stagnated from 1956 to 1976 and then underwent a very strong recession from 1976 to 1997, losing about 30% of their surface area (probably linked to the increase in inten- sity, duration and frequency of warm ENSO phases).

This finding corroborates the observations made on the nearby Glacier 15 (Antizana ice cap) located 10 km northeast of the Cotopaxi Volcano, which also lost about 30% of its surface area from 1956 to 1997. Slope exposure to humid fluxes from the Amazon and solar radiation at the Cotopaxi ice cap did not have any significant effect, since all the glaciers of the volcano retreated to a similar degree. It is interesting to note that the glacier recession on the Cotopaxi Volcano was particularly pronounced because of the conical form of the ice cap, resulting in exposure of the surface area below the equilibrium line altitude to strong ablation conditions.

Rivera et al. (2005) found that ice-capped volcanoes of the Chilean Lake District have undergone significant glacier retreat during recent decades, probably in response to tropospheric warming and precipitation decrease. By 2003, the shrinking glaciers of the Mocho-Choshuenco Volcano had lost 11.5 ± 2.5 km2, i.e. 40.5% of the total ice area of 28.4 km2 measured in 1976. A maximum decrease in area was observed at a rate of 0.45 km2 year-1 between 1987 and 2003.
READ MORE AT http://www.atypon-link.com/IAHS/doi/abs/10.1623/hysj.2005.50.6.949?cookieSet=1&journalCode=hysj

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Scientists predict that all the glaciers in the tropical Andes will disappear by mid-century. The implications are dire not just for La Paz-El Alto, Bolivia, but also for Quito, Ecuador, and Bogota, Colombia. More than 11 million people now live in the burgeoning cities, and El Alto alone is expanding at 5 percent a year. The melting of the glaciers threatens not just drinking water but also crops and the hydroelectric plants on which these cities rely. The affected countries will need hundreds of millions of dollars to build reservoirs, shore up leaky distribution networks and construct gas or oil-fired plants — money they simply don't have. "We're the ones who've contributed the least to global warming and we're getting hit with the biggest bill," laments Edson Ramirez, a Bolivian hydrologist who coordinates U.N., French- and Japanese-sponsored projects to quantify the damage exacted on fragile Andes ecosystems by richer nations that use more fossil fuel and thus produce more greenhouse gas emissions.By Frank Bajak, The Associated Press, Nov. 26, 2007

READ MORE AT http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21977447/

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Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia’s Earth Institute and Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, sparred over the best way to address the planet’s problems. In a wide-ranging debate at Columbia University on Thursday morning, Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia’s Earth Institute, faced off over how best to address climate change.

Mr. Sachs criticized current international measures as inadequate, and called for a global fund to finance new technology to help poor countries battle the problem. “I don’t see the European trading system as changing the game in technology,” Mr. Sachs said. “We’re going to need a significant pool of international resources.” He applauded a recent Swiss proposal to impose an international levy of $2 a ton on carbon dioxide emissions.

Of the Clean Development Mechanism, a United Nations program that helps poor countries battle global warming, he said, “Things like the CDM are unfortunately very small, marginal tools.” Mr. de Boer defended the program, saying it was a useful tool for engaging poor countries in climate change issues, while acknowledging that current gains were incremental. NY Times October 9, 2008, By Kate Galbraith

READ MORE at http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/climate-change/?pagemode=print

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Are travelers destroying cultures, economies and the planet? Are they making the world a better place? Frank Bures chats with Leo Hickman, author of The Final Call, about the ethics and consequences of world travel.

http://www.worldhum.com/home/item/leo_hickman_the_true_cost_of_travel_20070711/ 

Hickman has also written A Good Life: the guide to ethical living and A Life Stripped Bare: my year trying to live ethically and he reports for The Guardian (UK). He did his research in 2006-2007 and since then the effects of climate change and development for tourism has worsened. His clarion call - that we must question the popular industry claim that tourism is clean - is compelling and well documented. Behind the sunny facade of infinity pools, smiling locals, sightseeing tours, and exotic cuisine, he finds an often devastating phenomenon that's spreading unchecked throughout the globe. His investigative travelogue includes Dubai, cruise ships, alpine glaciers, coastal resorts in Thailand, golfing in Spain, diving on coral reefs, and sex tourism in Asia. In the process he inaugurates the terms "egotourism" for ecotourism and "greenwash" for the travel industry's whitewashing its projects and products as environmentally friendly. His lists of source articles comprise essential tools for further reading.

Available from Transworld Publishers, http://www.booksattransworld.co.uk. For debates and updates about the future of tourism, check his site http://www.leohickman.co.uk

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This article in World Hum (July 6, 2007) chooses places, things, and people that embody ways the planet is shrinking and cultures are colliding. They include "Airworld," Dubai, the California (sushi) roll, Google Earth/Maps, the (newly navigable) Northwest Passage, Manu Chao, and Starbucks "Forbidden City." It's a Brave New World for sure, though you may not want to ski on Dubai's man-made mountains. World Hum also nominates "the Seven Wonders of Canada". Read more at:  

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Here is a list of organizations committed to reducing our carbon footprint and preserving our international treasures through funding and public education.

Word Monuments Fund, http://wmf.org/activeprojects.html

International Tourism Society http://www.ecotourism.org/webmodules/webarticlesnet/templates/eco_template.aspx?a=12&z=25 

Global Development Research Center, http://www.gdrc.org/uem/eco-tour/eco-tour.html

National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/sustainable

http://www.sustainabletourism.net

RainForest Alliance, http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/tourism.cfm?id=main

Sustainable Travel Int., http://www.sustainabletravelinternational.org

Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development http://ecotourismcesd.org/home/index.html

United Nations http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/sdissues/tourism/tourism.htm

Book List: Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who Owns Paradise? by Dr. Martha Honey, 2008 Sustainable Tourism: A Global Perspective by Rob Harris, Tony Griffin, Peter Williams, 2002
Sustainable Tourism: Theory and Practice by David Weaver, 2004 Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas by Paul F. J. Eagles, Stephen F. McCool, 2002

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