Although the world has not geographically gotten any smaller, it may seem so since you can get to even the furthest corner of the globe in under 12 hours. Nowadays, travelling has become a hobby and a popular life style for many people. For example in Finland, travelling abroad increased by 17 % from the year 2011 to year 2012. This 17% is equivalent to an addition of 7,8 million trips in various forms of travelling. (Tilastokeskus, 18.04.2013) However, travelling, in general, has a lot of problems, for instance social, political and environmental. In this blog I will focus on the environmental aspects. According to traveltips.com (http://traveltips.usatoday.com/positive-negative-effects-tourism-63336.html) tourism, in general, has a significant impact on the environment. The main environmental impacts are littering, traffic emissions, increased and not properly constructed sewage production. What is Ecotourism? Ecotourism is a form of tourism that involves travelling to the world’s most pristine and fragile places, while keeping the ecological footprint to a minimum. The main idea behind ecotourism is not to entertain the tourist, but to educate them on the importance of nature conservation and respect for the environment. Special focus is placed on the social responsibility of travelling and environmental sustainability. Ecotourism is meant to offer tourists special insight into the impact of human actions on the environment, and to enable a greater appreciation of our natural habitats. Ecotourism is a great way for a traveler to help minimize his or her ecological footprint of travelling! The importance of eco-tourism is growing every year since travelling, in general, is increasing significantly every year, causing a need for a more sustainable alternative. What can you do as an eco-tourist? There are a lot of things a responsible tourist can do to minimize his or her ecological footprint when travelling to and in the destination. First of all, a tourist has a choice whether to use a plane (which is the biggest source of pollution in travelling) or, for instance, a train, albeit this is really not an option if you are travelling overseas and have only a few weeks' time. However, the eco-tourist can also decide which form of public transportation to use when travelling within the country. For example, a traveler should consider whether to use trains, busses, trams etc instead of flying. Another important thing that an eco-tourist can take into consideration is low-impact visitor behavior, meaning that kind of behavior that does not affect the local people in any cultural way. The appreciation of local cultures and biodiversity, which means adapting to the existing culture “when in Rome, do as the Romans” is extremely important. Taking care of the environment by not littering and not, for example, picking any flowers or sea shells from their natural environment are also key guidelines an eco-tourist should follow. An eco- tourist can also take care of the environment by not purchasing objects, such as corals, whose removal has a negative impact on natural ecosystems. A good eco-souvenir can, for example, be a hand-made piece of jewelry (that doesn’t include any sea shells etc) or other craftsmanship pieces. Although there are considerable downsides to travelling in remote areas, there are also positive aspects. For instance, when I was travelling in Costa Rica and visiting Rio Celeste Natural Park, 75 % of the profits went towards the conservation of that particular ecosystem. This is a great way of using the income enabled by tourism for the greater good. Although the increase in travelling raises a lot of social awareness of other cultures and supports internationality and cooperation, it also has serious consequences, especially towards the environment. This is why the concept of eco-travelling needs to be emphasized, since after all, it is the best decision out of all the bad ones! Happy eco-travels everybody! RESOURCES Ecotourism, 2014, The Nature Conservancy, available at :http://www.nature.org/greenliving/what-is-ecotourism.xml Ecotourism, 2014, Wikipedia.org, available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotourism Suomalaisten matkailu ulkomaille, Tilastokeskus, 18.04.2013, http://tilastokeskus.fi/til/smat/2012/smat_2012_2013-04-18_tie_001_fi.html Effects of tourism, USA today, available at:http://traveltips.usatoday.com/positive-negative-effects-tourism-63336.html PHOTOS by me! =) Ines Koski What's Happening? While people in U.S. and Europe are building and developing zero-energy houses, in China and United Arab Emirates, they are building sustainable cities. That’s right, sustainable cities, not just sustainable houses or small scale housing, but huge cities. Masdar Project Currently in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, there is a completely new city being constructed that will house 50000 inhabitants in an area of 6 square kilometers. After its construction, it will be the first completely carbon neutral and zero waste city in the world. One of the biggest goals of the project is to make Masdar City into the global leader for renewable energy research, development, implementation and investment. This is a great start. The success or failure of this project will determine how willing we will be to construct more of these grand scale eco-cities. Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city is a cooperative project between Singapore and China to build a sustainable city in Tianjin, China. The area is located between Beijing and Tianjin, 50 km from Tianjin and 150 km from Beijing. When completed in 2020, the area will inhabit around 350000 residents. The project is based two sets of three principles: Three Harmonies and Three Abilities. The Three Harmonies are: people living in harmony with other people, people living in harmony with economic activities, and people living in harmony with the environment. The Three Abilities are: commercial viability, the project should be replicated in other place in China and around the world, and the size should be adaptable to any scale. The site was cleverly chosen to be built on a non-agricultural area. This means that no potential farm land was taken away. The site, however, is located in an area that receives very little rain water and has no viable freshwater sources nearby. This means that the only source of fresh water is to build a desalination plant. The Future These eco-cities are not being built just to show-off, but they are being built out of necessity. As your might have guessed, the countries who are taking the first steps are the ones who have the capital to try and fail. The United Arab Emirates have gotten very rich by exploiting their rich reserves of oil, but they also understand that the age of petroleum will come to an end and they have to start building for the future. Chinese economy is one of the largest in the world and they also have the largest population in the world and they are investing very heavily in new eco-cities. To build these cities we need to discover new materials, techniques and technologies. If the only thing standing in our way is our own lack of vision, then there shouldn’t be anything standing in our way. Timo Karjalainen Sources http://www.masdarcity.ae/en/27/what-is-masdar-city-/ http://www.tianjinecocity.gov.sg/bg_intro.htm |
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May 2019
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