Language can be a dangerous thing. If we use and misuse a word often enough and in the wrong context, its meaning becomes distorted or weakened. Paradigm is a word that has suffered this fate. So is the word sustainability. A common definition describes sustainable actions as those which, if undertaken today will not compromise the future of subsequent generations. If we believe what the scientists are saying and that mankind’s current economic, social and technological systems are destroying the biosphere on which we depend, then sustainability is wishful thinking, unless we change the way we do our economy, society and technology.
This is particularly true of tourism which has proudly been touted as “green” and non-polluting, simply because we are not associated with smoke stacks, urban sprawl and large manufacturing complexes.
Tourism is like the powerful Indian Goddess Shiva – both an enabler and a destroyer. When growing globally at over 4.0% per year, and burning a precious, non-renewable fossil fuel that emits a cocktail of warming, toxic gases, tourism can hardly be called sustainable in its current form. We've borrowed our name from the story of in Greek mythology - Icarus was the son of Daedalus who ignore the wise instructions of his father. They used wax to bind bird's wings to their arms in order to fly out of their prison. The scheme would only work provided they did not fly too low when their wings could get wet and drag them into the water or too high where the sun's rays would melt the wax..... And what do most cocky, inexperienced adolsecents do when given an instruction from a parent?????
Ironically, in many developing nations, tourism may be the only source of income available to fund adaptation strategies to an event (climate change) generated by the very same regions from which their visitors are derived.
So we’re not anti tourism – the founders of the Icarus Foundation have long and credible histories serving an industry we love and that we believe has much to offer host and guest alike. We want it to continue to a powerful force for good – to spread wealth, alleviate poverty, enhance cultural understanding, enrich cultures, conserve natural resources and ensure peace and harmony. But we don’t believe those benefits will accrue or be sustainable in the long run unless we face reality today.
Tourism as Both "Victim" and "Perpetrator"
Tourism is a “victim” of climate change – many, many businesses, much capital investment and many human lives are at stake over the next 20-50 years due to the dependency of tourism services on natural environments which are experiencing unprecedented rates of change and deterioration. Some, such as those in new Orleans, the Maldives, Tuvulu are already feeling the power of water to destroy as well as succor.
Tourism is already a major perpetrator of climate change: we’re the only industry that has to move its customers to the point of consumption. Where international travel is concerned, the favored and, in some cases, the only form of transport is air, which relies on the burning of a noxious and precious fuel . There are serious limits to the amount of additional efficiencies that can be extracted from current technology.
Nobody in the developed world really wants to give up what has become a very pleasant habit – exploring distant and different cultures and landscapes while relaxing from the daily grind. Nobody could possibly want to deprive others of this pleasure. Our economy is now unable to turn the clock back – it operates in a highly connected, densely populated village not vast and empty space. So international air travel will continue to grow at an exponential rate. The horse has bolted……
So what’s to do?
If we wish tourism to be recognized as the economic force it claims to be, then it must assume responsibility for its share of the problems besetting the whole.
That requires:
- Acknowledging that tourism isn’t quite as green as it could and should be;
- Taking steps to measure our contribution (notably, our production of greenhouse gases);
- Undertaking a cross-sector program designed to reduce our footprint (conserve energy, reduce emissions, switch to alternative sources and, as a last resort, offset the carbon that is burned);
- Facing the challenges and mitigating risk wherever possible; and
- Stop implying that "business as usual" is sustainble - we cannot carry on in the same way but we can carry on in a better way.
Without doubt, tourism is about to experience a radical shakeup. Many of the emerging markets on which we will depend in 25 years - after the baby boomers have finally become too stiff and sedentary to travel - may well then be pre-occupied with adaptation strategies at home designed to avoid widespread starvation and displacement of their poorer rural peers. According to the IPCC some 400 million Indians may be at severe risk from flooding and or water shortages by 2030. The impact of that on India’s economy will be profound.
At the Icarus Foundation in Canada, we’re trying to make our contribution and welcome dialogue with our peers. By working together, we may succeed in truly sustaining tourism and making a contribution to planetary health as well. We invite you to join on this new journey into the unknown – we’re all Star Trekkers now.
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