Save Eco Destinations

By Claire Harding

Over the last year the ecotourism industry has grown by 15%, and is one of the fastest growing areas of tourism worldwide. Ecotourism is often described as sustainable tourism or travel, often having an educational, ecological focus which is respectful and beneficial towards local cultures, geographies, communities and economies. Despite the rising popularity of ecotourism, tourism in general continues to rise, with more tourists wishing to travel from developing economies such as Brazil, India, Russia and China.

As more and more people want to see the world and experience new and interesting places, one of the major challenges for the tourism industry is to adapt traditional tourism in a way that is more sustainable, limiting its global ecological and cultural impact? This article suggests that tourism should head towards the seas.

Cutting long distances

When someone mentions tourism, the first thing that springs to mind is visiting new and exotic places. Almost by definition, it is impossible to get to new and exotic places without involving some form of travel. How can we fulfil our travel needs in a sustainable way?

Air travel

Air travel is often spoken of as a highly unsustainable mode of transport. However, many people also observe that travelling by plane can actually be more efficient than other modes of transport such as a train or a car. Although a Boeing 747 burns approximately 5 gallons of fuel per mile, it must also be remembered that the aircraft has a carrying capacity of 568 people, therefore using approximately 0.01 gallons per person per mile, using roughly the same amount of fuel as a car carrying four people.

So what is the biggest problem with air travel? One issue is that because of the altitude planes travel at, harmful emissions and greenhouse gasses are released directly into the upper atmosphere where they do more damage. However, by far the greatest problem with air travel is that it facilitates long distance travel, encouraging people to travel further and use vast amounts of energy more frequently.

Travelling over short distances

One of the most important challenges for sustainable tourism is the need to encourage people to travel shorter distances, and take their vacations locally or in neighbouring countries which are accessible by boat or train. The recent growth in UK tourism has been accredited to the economic recession and the fact that people are unable to travel long distances. In the US also, the economic climate and increasing fuel prices has resulted in people travelling shorter distances in their cars, taking their vacations closer to home.

The cost of travel clearly has a dramatic effect on the choices people make concerning their vacations. Higher tax regulations on fuel used for leisure and holiday travel, would be a very efficient way of encouraging people to travel shorter distances and use more sustainable modes of transport over long distances.

Long distance travel by boat

If you do need to travel long distances, one of the most sustainable modes of transport is to travel by boat, such as passenger ship or ferry. Recent advances in ship engineering, tighter regulations involving the use of sea water ballast in the fuel tanks of large cruise ships and ferries and Load on Top refuelling all mean that modern large ships are producing far less sea water contamination than traditional designs.

Furthermore, there is a large emphasis on producing modes of shipping which use less energy. For thousands of years, wind, which is a renewable energy resource, was the preferred mode of shipping before steam came along. Recent efforts are underway to bring wind travel to power large cargo vessels. If these are successful, it is very likely that wind may become a popular and entirely green option for mass human transportation. Could we see resurgence in cruising holidays as a method of ecotourism?

Cruising as sustainable tourism

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, cruising holidays declined in popularity. However, cruising companies are putting a lot of effort into restoring the image of this once highly glamorous mode of tourism. Furthermore, there has been a large emphasis on the development of green cruising, in order to make cruising holidays a more sustainable form of tourism.

If cruise ships are able to become increasingly energy-efficient and reduce their carbon footprint, cruising could be a highly accessible and sustainable form of ecotourism. The idea of a giant luxury cruise liner roaring through the seas may not sound very green. However, one fine example of how cruising can be considered ecotourism is by looking at the use of cruising on the Galapagos Islands.

Due to their isolated geographical location, warm water, and volcanic nature, the Galapagos Islands have one of the most diverse and visually exciting ecosystems in the world. These are tightly regulated and protected by conservation regulations which prevent any building or permanent dwellings on most of the Islands. The only way to see the abundance of nature available at Galapagos is on board small vessels which are effectively small cruises.

These cruises have a limited impact on the surrounding ecosystem and require little or no permanent infrastructure to be left behind on the Islands. In addition, money from tourism helps to fund education about the need for further conservation. The model of the Galapagos Islands suggests how ocean- or water-based vacations can be a sustainable and effective form of ecotourism, and meet our global tourism demands.

By Kevin Vogel

Solar power is a great way to use an alternative, renewable energy source to provide electricity for a home. It is cheap and plentiful, and offers a long term energy solution for the home where the consumer does not have to rely on the utility company to provide their power. Even with tax incentives and rebates, the initial cost to the consumer can be expensive, and this added cost may scare the consumer away from adopting solar power. One way in which the consumer can manage the cost is through a piecemeal adoption of solar power units to target individual appliances in the home. A hot water heating system is often great place to start with solar power because it is a standalone unit and can be modified more easily for a solar hot water heating system.

A solar heating system consists of two main parts. There is the storage tank which holds the water and the solar collectors themselves. Depending on the system they adopt, the consumer may not need to replace their existing water heater with a system that will work with solar power, but this is still much more affordable than installing an entire solar system for the household. Essentially, there are two kinds of solar water heating systems. There is an active system which consists of circulating pumps and controls. There is also a passive system which has none of this added equipment. The storage tank in these systems operates in a very simple way. It can be a standalone solar system that preheats the water before it enters a conventional water heater. Some storage systems are combined into one system, but both require good insulation and additional inlets and outlets from the solar collectors.

The operation of an active solar powered water heating system is relatively easy to understand, and this in turn comes in two types. There is a direct circulation system that uses pumps to circulate household water through the solar collectors. The collectors themselves are what provide the heating element for the water. This kind of system works great in climates that are not prone freezing since the collectors themselves will be outside. The other kind of active system is called an indirect system. In this system pumps circulate a nonfreezing heat transfer fluid through the solar collectors and a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger then heats the water that flows into the home. A passive system is useful for climates that are prone to freezing.

For the passive solar powered water heating system, these systems are typically less expensive and less efficient than active systems, but they do last longer. In passive systems, the solar collector is separate from the system, and the hot water and cold water are kept separate and the storage tank is used as a backup. Because the collector tank must be kept elevated, there are some structural concerns that the consumer must keep in mind for installation.

Solar power can be a great way to providing hot water heating for a home. It can replace gas and electric hot water tanks, and provide an entry point for the consumer in adopting solar power.

Kevin Vogel writes for ecofriendly design sites. Check out http://www.exclusiv-home.de/#solarkollektor for solar power ideas for your home.

Climate change will bring a combination of rising temperatures and increased predation that will result in biodiversity loss – and it may be worse than currently predicted, claims a study by University of British Columbia (UBC) zoologist Christopher Harley.

“Global warming is already having significant ecological impacts and it’s only going to get more dramatic,” Harley warned.

The study

Published in the current issue of the journal Science, the study examines how rocky shore barnacles and mussels react to the combined effects of warming and predation by sea stars.

Harley looked at the upper and lower temperature limits of barnacles and mussels from the cool west coast of Vancouver Island to the warm shores of the San Juan Islands, where water temperature rose from relatively cool in the 1950s to the much warmer years of 2009 and 2010.

He found that in cooler locations, mussels and rocky shore barnacles could live high on the shore and be shielded from their predators. But as temperatures rose, barnacles and mussels had to move to lower shore levels — and be exposed to predatory sea stars, whose location has not shifted.

“Sea stars are the terrors of the intertidal zone,” said Harley, Vancouver Sun reports. “As it gets hotter you would expect [species] to just move down to lower positions on the shore where they wouldn’t be out of the water for so long. But things aren’t shifting in unison.”

As daily high temperatures during the summer have jumped by almost 3.5 degrees Celsius in the last 60 years, barnacle and mussels have moved 50 cm lower on the shore. However, the effects of predators, and therefore the position of the lower limit, have thus far remained unchanged.

“That loss represents 51% of the mussel bed. Some mussels have even gone extinct locally at three of the sites I surveyed,” said Harley.

He then found that when stress from sea star predation was reduced by using exclusion cages, mussels and other species were able to live in hotter sites where they usually can’t — and their populations there more than doubled.

“A mussel bed is kind of like an apartment complex – it provides critical habitat for a lot of little plants and animals,” said Harley. “The mussels make the habitat cooler and wetter, providing an environment for crabs and other small crustaceans, snails, worms and seaweed.”

In contrast with many previous studies on how species ranges will change due to global warming, this analysis does not assume that species will simply relocate to remain in their current temperature range.

As animals or plants are unable to change their habitat ranges, Harley told, the findings show that warming and predation together could spawn more widespread extinction than scientists currently anticipate.

“Warming is not just having direct effects on individual species,” Harley added. “This study shows that climate change can also alter interactions between species, and produce unexpected changes in where species can live, their community structure, and their diversity.”

The effect on fishers

Relatedly, UBC researchers have also determined how climate change can impact the economic viability of current fisheries practices. Fish stocks are already yielding fewer fish due to overfishing and environmental factors such as pollution.

“Climate change is likely to cause more losses unless we choose to act,” said Rashid Sumaila, principal investigator of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at UBC and lead author of the study.

A collaboration between economists, biologists and climate-change scientists, the study gives a broad outlook of the effect of climate change on fisheries and their profitability; it was published online in the journal Nature Climate Change. It received the support of the Pew Charitable Trusts, National Geographic, the World Bank and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

As waters warm, species move to cooler waters

Warming ocean temperatures have led many species to move farther towards the poles and into deeper and cooler waters. This means that while fishers in a few regions, such as Scandinavia in the far north, may benefit because they will now have more fish to catch, many others, and particularly fishers in the tropics, will lose an important food source along with their livelihoods. (Many fishers in tropical regions are poor and fish to feed themselves and their families.)

Researchers examined regional phenomena to help them find out what could happen on a global scale. For instance, lower catches of pelagic fish (such as sardines and anchovies) in Peru resulting from warmer waters during the 1997-1998 El Niño event caused more than USD 26 million in losses.

“For example, if you think about sardines on the Pacific Coast here: Whenever the temperatures are a bit higher, we see more sardines moving from Mexico through the US to Canada,” Sumaila noted, CBC News reports.

Fish survival is compromised

William Cheung, a biologist at the UBC Fisheries Center, said changes in temperature and ocean chemistry directly and adversely affect the physiology, growth, reproduction and distribution of marine life.

“Fish in warmer waters will probably have a smaller body size, be smaller at first maturity, with higher mortality rates and be caught in different areas,” he explained.

NOAA scientist and co-author Sam Herrick is calling for ongoing studies on how climate change and related factors will shape marine ecosystems and the productivity of fish populations.

Richer fish stocks = better adaptation to change

It was found that the bigger populations are, the better fish can adjust to environmental shifts such as warming temperatures. Minimizing the combined strains from overfishing, habitat degradation, pollution runoff, land-use transformation, competing aquatic resource uses and other anthropogenic factors will also contribute to helping stocks cope with climate change.

“We have to remember that the effect of climate change on the marine environment will occur alongside the impacts on land,” said Daniel Pauly, a UBC fisheries biologist and co-author.  “It will not be easy to divert resources from one sector to help another sector. This is why a strong governance system is needed – to temper the losses on the sectors that are worst hit.”

In other words, government officials need to step up and work harder to stop overfishing and illegal fishing, reduce runoff from agriculture and other polluting sources, and fight habitat destruction, among taking other measures.

Take a small step to make a difference

In the meantime, if you eat fish, something you can do is commit to purchasing only sustainably caught seafood. Read more about how to do this here:

• Greenpeace reveals canned tuna guide
• Fish eaters beware – your “sustainable” fish may not be

Related blog posts on Save Eco Destinations:

• Marine experts spell doom for world’s oceans, Pt. 2
• Marine experts spell doom for world’s oceans, Pt. 1

 

 

(This is part two of a two-part series on a report regarding the dismal state of our oceans. Part 1 of the series discusses the report’s findings and the primary ocean stressors currently involved.)

Entire marine ecosystems could disappear within a generation — a phenomenon that would take a devastating toll on humans, not just marine animals, according to the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) report discussed in part one of this series.

You might be surprised to hear that shellfish and other marine animals comprise 15 per cent of animal protein for 3 billion people throughout the world, and another 1 billion people rely on fish stocks for their main source of protein. It’s important to remember that we need to preserve marine ecosystems, not only because they’re pretty to look at and something to explore when we’re taking a decadent beach vacation, but also because much of humanity’s food security is at stake here.

In fact, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) last December released a report called “Environmental Consequences of Ocean Acidification: A Threat to Food Security,” noting that burgeoning greenhouse gas emissions may have more widespread and complex effects on ocean health than previously anticipated, and that the chemistry of the globe’s oceans is being altered at a rate unseen for 65 million years.

The report confirms worries that corals, shellfish and other organisms may have an increasingly difficult time surviving due to weakening skeletons, and demonstrates that ocean acidification combined with ocean warming would lower the range of temperatures in which crabs and other animals can thrive.

This could powerfully affect, among other factors, catches of shellfish; species reliant on coral reefs and those such as salmon that feed on shell-building organisms lower down the food chain. – FIS

What’s more, climate change is predicted to cause big dents in coastal fisheries resources in the Pacific Islands region, potentially slashing production by as much as 50 per cent by 2100, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Heads of Fisheries communicated in March. It is forecasted that higher sea temperatures, ocean acidification, and loss of important habitats like coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves will dramatically affect the inshore resources that provide myriad coastal communities in New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, and other impoverished countries with food and a livelihood. And let’s not forget that people who live off fisheries in various ways populate most countries on Earth, from the United States and Malta to Argentina and Pakistan.

Some 55 million years ago, 2.2 gigatonnes of CO2 were released annually for thousands of years and numerous species died out. Today, it is estimated that 2.2. gigatonnes of CO2 are shot into the atmosphere every year by deforestation alone.

“The rate of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere and the rate of change in the oceans is extraordinary — there is a very urgent need to get that under control,” stressed Alex Rogers, a professor of conservation biology at the University of Oxford and lead author of the study.

And now, the most important part of this series:

What YOU can do

To address the findings, the IPSO report gives several recommendations, such as the creation of “a global body empowered to ensure compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea” and steps to improve the fish stock sustainability.

Rogers suggested that anything from choosing the right kind of fish to eat to lobbying politicians helps.

I suggest that fish eaters scan Greenpeace’s canned tuna guide to make sure they are choosing sustainably caught tuna whose harvesting is not wiping out turtles, dolphins, or other species. Also, California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium has a seafood guide that’s really nifty (available as pocket or mobile, too) and the website is rich with information on related issues. Check out their recommendations!

Support green organizations like Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Greenpeace, who work to both spread awareness about vital issues and fight the “bad guys” (in this case, Sea Shepherd – very courageously – goes after poachers hands-on, while Greenpeace targets harvesters of destructively caught fish and the companies that sell them, fights companies that pollute egregiously, and so on).

Attend clean-up days at your local beach or park. Go to Hands Across the Sand each year. Consider volunteering and donating whatever resources you have to anyone working toward a worthy cause.

Whenever a petition appears that could help ocean health, sign it. Visit sites like Care2 and Change.org and sign up for their newsletters to stay informed on new developments, learn how to help, and to find likeminded friends.

Together, we will make a difference.

“If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.” – Mother Theresa

(This is part one of a two-part series on a report regarding the dismal state of our oceans. Part two of the series tackles the situation’s repercussions on humans and what we can do to help our oceans recover.)

A team of marine experts announced this week a new summary report arguing that climate change and other man-made factors will spur colossal levels of extinction in the world’s oceans. The catastrophe is forecasted to be “unprecedented in human history.”

The proverbial excrement, it seems, is about to hit the fan.

Not surprisingly, it appears that changes in our atmosphere, ecosystems, and habitats across the planet are accelerating too quickly for many species to adapt and be able to survive.

“The speed of change, particularly related to climate change, is so great there simply isn’t time for marine life to adapt to these new conditions,” said Alex Rogers, a professor of conservation biology at the University of Oxford.

He explained that mass extinctions have been tied to considerable changes in the oceans’ carbon systems in the past.

“That’s what we’re bringing about through our own actions today,” he noted, reports ABC News.

Rogers and a team of 26 other researchers from various countries met earlier this year for a three-day workshop in England to study ocean stressors. Their full report is set to be published in the near future.

Ocean stressors at play

Ocean acidification is one key factor. Here’s what it’s about: carbon dioxide (CO2) (along with methane and other gasses) plays a huge role in heating up our planet and thereby causing climate change, which includes melting polar ice caps and rising ocean levels. Okay. What you might not know is that one-third of the planet’s CO2 is absorbed by the ocean, and that the more CO2 the ocean absorbs, the greater the waters’ acidity. This phenomenon is called ocean acidification and it’s noxious to our planet for many reasons. For example, rising acidity levels in our oceans have been found to:

• Impair fish hearing and smell, putting their survival in danger
• Kill off endangered species such as northern abalone
• Threaten the survival of krill, itself the basic food source of nearly all animals in the ocean

Apart from ocean acidification, rising water temperatures, overfishing, pollution, and even tourism are all exacerbating the rapid decline of species such as reef-forming coral. (Go here, here, and here for more on the state of coral reefs.)

Sharks and other species may be next, warned Rogers, lead author of the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) report.

Further, he said that, in many cases, the impacts of ocean stressors were found to have a greater overall effect than any single effect when taken together. For example, the decline of coral reef ecosystems due to overfishing and reef bleaching, plus the acidification that causes bleaching, will eradicate “the most diverse marine ecosystems on the planet.”

Chilling.

“As we considered the cumulative effect of what humankind does to the ocean, the implications became far worse than we had individually realized,” Rogers said. “This is a very serious situation demanding unequivocal action at every level.”

Stay tuned for part two of this 2-part series.

It’s summer and once again Hands Across the Sand is coming to your beach or city so you can gather with likeminded, environmentally oriented folk and peacefully show your opposition against offshore oil drilling and your support of clean energy solutions for a sustainable Earth. This Saturday will be the second annual Hands Across the Sand event held across the globe.

It goes like this: on June 25^th at 11am, wherever you are, go to the beach for 1 hour (rain or shine). Stand and hold hands with others while forming lines in the sand against oil drilling in your coastal waters. Remember to wear eco-friendly sunblock :)

According to the website, the movement is not about politics; instead, it is a push toward protecting coastal economies, oceans, marine wildlife, and fisheries from the menace of expanded offshore drilling and the accidents that can come with it, such as last year’s massively catastrophic BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, whose calamitous effects are expected to be felt for decades to come.

More you can do:

• Florida residents can sign a petition to ban oil drilling (you have to download, print, sign, and mail it to officials in Tallahassee, FL).
• Donate $5 or more by clicking on the “donate” buttons on the website.
• Follow the movement on Facebook and Twitter.
• Spread the word.

See photos from last year’s event.

The history of Hands Across the Sand

Florida surfer and restaurateur Dave Rauschkolb founded the even in October 2009 after a bill was passed in the Florida House of Representatives to end the ban on nearshore drilling. Rauschkolb got the support of sponsor organizations and rallied over 10,000 Floridians to join hands on February 13, 2010 along the state’s coastlines, to show the extent of Floridians’ opposition to nearshore drilling.

Hands Across The Sand enjoys the support of national (U.S.) and international environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Oceana, Environment America, Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife, Alaska Wilderness League, Ocean Conservancy, Friends of the Earth, 350, Center for Biological Diversity, Audubon, and CleanEnergy.org.

 

Many companies tout their hotels as eco, but – as one might, unfortunately, expect – many companies also lie.

So how do you know if the place you’re thinking of staying at during your next vacation is really an eco hotel?

A great resource is EcoHotelology, a blog written by Holly Worton, who has 11 years of experience in the eco hotel industry. Although her blog’s main purpose is to help hoteliers learn how they can green their business (and home and office), Worton’s posts are helpful for anyone interested in expanding her or his knowledge about eco hotels and greening one’s lifestyle.

13 tell-tale signs that you’re dealing with an eco hotel:

• The rooms have a door-key-card-controlled electricity system that allows guests to turn off the electricity to their room by removing their card when they exit it
• Having green options offered to you, such as foregoing daily housekeeping
• Recycling services
• Low flow or dual flush toilets and low flow showerheads in the bathrooms
• Vegetarian meal options (and I don’t just mean spaghetti and salad. Give me something I can use!)
• The food is grown or produced locally, perhaps grown in an organic garden located on the premises
• Mindful ecotours/safaris – this means hummers are not used to drive guests around, nor ATVs; people are not allowed to speak or photograph in the presence of wildlife, and so on. Otherwise, it’s just a regular, nature-unfriendly tour/safari, and nature has enough hostility to deal with from us as it is.
• Only pasture-raised animal products are offered in its restaurants
• Only native plants are used in the landscaping
• Organic massage oils and all-natural products are used in the spa
• Wall dispensers provide shampoo, etc., instead of individual bottles and individually wrapped soaps
• The eco hotel uses renewable energy (solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, etc.)
• Hybrid cars are used to transport guests and you can rent bicycles to get around the area

 

5 signs that your eco hotel isn’t:

• The hotel contains a golf course
• The hotel endorses fishing, dolphin swims, visits to zoos, the use of jet skis and other personal water crafts, bonfires, hunting, etc.
• You see foie gras on the menu
• Food or drinks are brought to you in disposable containers and/or you get aluminum foil, plastic wrap, Styrofoam coffee cups or plastic utensils with your order
• You get mineral water in plastic bottles

Make sure to speak up and let the manager, etc., know you aren’t happy with their false advertising or any unsustainable aspects of the so-called eco hotel. And if the place is truly an eco hotel, feel free to inform them how glad you are about their eco-friendly services!

And always remember to do your part to travel green. We are all responsible for taking care of our planet!

Bikes aplenty in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Apart from the ubiquitous bikers spotted across the city, Amsterdam may not appear to be one of the greenest cities of tomorrow (or today). But it is quickly becoming increasingly energy-efficient.

Dutch energy company Nuon, IBM and Cisco last year jointly launched a pioneering energy management scheme in 500 households that is reducing their energy usage by 14% and CO2 emissions considerably.

Thus far, also, certain Dutch banks have given money to some 700 household to purchase energy-saving appliances ranging from light bulbs to roof insulation. The city plans to lower its CO2 emissions by a hefty 40% by 2025.

Another factor making Amsterdam one of the greenest cities of tomorrow is its intent to install several hundred power hookups within the next few years to allow electric car drivers to recharge their vehicles, and to set up solar panels on townhouses. EUR 100 million will be spent each year during the next 6 years to upgrade the electric networks to smart grids that will cut energy use.

Victoria Harbor, BC, Canada

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Victoria is boosting its efforts toward green public transport and building, energy-cutting developments, recycling and decreasing overall waste. It has also set a goal to go carbon neutral by 2012! Swift action’s where it’s at—don’t give me 2025, folks, because 15 years isn’t nearly soon enough…

Insofar as city planning, it supports the creation of a Civic Green Building Policy, which will mandate that the building of all new civic facilities meet the LEED Silver standard. In other words, they must lower energy use by 31% and water use by 22%.

In terms of waste reduction, Victoria has been implementing a program for several years destined to lower and recycle organic materials on a mass scale.

More reasons why Victoria is one of the greenest cities of tomorrow:  it has introduced the first hybrid double-decker buses in all of North America. Plus, the city is covered with so many bike routes it has become known as the “Cycling Capital of Canada.”

More: Victoria’s traffic lights are now energy-saving light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and the lighting in its buildings now feature more energy efficient lights.

Other greenest cities of tomorrow:

Malmö, Sweden
Gothenberg, Sweden
Vancouver, Canada
Reykjavík, Iceland
Portland, OR, USA

MAYAB Holistic Center and Educational Retreat, opening this month, educates its guests “about critical environmental issues facing the coastal ecosystems of the Sian Ka’an [Biosphere Reserve] and surrounding area.”

Eco education

This is crucial, and something I wish all eco hotels did. Think about it: what if someone wants to help the environment and so chooses to vacation at an eco hotel, but then wears regular sunscreen while checking out coral reefs? What if a couple celebrates their wedding on the coast of Quintana Roo, where so many severely endangered sea turtles go to nest? Or if people with good intentions visit bird sanctuaries and fail to keep their mouths shut? Noooooooo!

Disaster!

Violating the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve

However, Mayab was built just north of Tulum in the Yucatán Peninsula within the Sian Ka’an Biosphere, a 1.3 million-acre nature reserve that also hosts Mayan ruins. I know what you’re thinking: this does not sound ecologically auspicious, sustainable and green as Mayab may tout itself to be. I absolutely agree.

Building a hotel – eco or otherwise – within a natural reserve is egregiously intrusive and atrocious.

(I’m not even going to go into the accommodations set up by the Sian Ka’an reserve itself!)

Sure, founder Delainia Haug means well, but placing her premises within a UNESCO World Heritage Site sounds like more of a marketing move than an environmentally magnanimous one.

As the eco hotel’s website says, “Approximately 36,000 tourists entered the reserve in the year 2000, and those numbers are expected to increase significantly each year.” And don’t forget “The increase in tourism and overdevelopment are threatening this fragile habitat.”

Oh, and “In the summer three species of endangered sea turtles come ashore to build their nests here.” I don’t think tourists should be trusted to respect nesting sites, no matter how ostensibly ecologically mindful they may be. Staying at a hotel placed right by these sites – not to mention being responsible for it – is decidedly irresponsible, to say the least.

How, then, could building a hotel within the Sian Ka’an Biosphere be ecologically responsible?

The good stuff

Apart from educating its guests, Mayab filters its grey and black water, turning the latter into organic matter. It is also developing a solar generated power system, composts, and recycles.

Also, retreats and programs are held to increase awareness about environmental issues.

What do you think?

Is its presence within a reserve ecologically laudable or destructive?

Leave a comment here and contact Delainia to voice your thoughts!

Carbon Fund’s slogan is “reduce what you can, offset what you can’t.”

Sounds good, right?

But what about those people (most people?) who opt for carbon offsets merely to ease their guilt because they have never lifted a finger to reduce their ecologically destructive footprint?

Or – even worse – what if people buy carbon offsets so they can feel good about polluting more?  “I’m gone all day but I like to leave the AC on so it’s cool when I get back in the evening. Don’t worry – I offset my carbon footprint.” Or, “Honey, let’s each drive both our cars to the store even though we could carpool, just because we both enjoy driving so much!” You get the idea.

Entire companies are perniciously profiting from carbon offsets. Some don’t even follow through with their promises! Shameful.

And certain companies with laudable intentions are picking up on this:

In 2002 Responsible Travel became one of the first travel companies to offer customers the option of buying so-called carbon offsets to counter the planet-warming emissions generated by their airline flights.

But last month Responsible Travel canceled the program, saying that while it might help travelers feel virtuous, it was not helping to reduce global emissions. In fact, company officials said, it might even encourage some people to travel or consume more.

Examples of ecologically irresponsible behavior that irk me:

• Leaving the water on while washing dishes or brushing one’s teeth
• Turning the AC on but leaving the windows open
• Opening the fridge and keeping the door open for 5 minutes while deciding on what to eat
• Printing documents for no good reason
• Taking 20-minute showers
• Setting the AC at ludicrously low temperatures in the summer (or, in places like South Florida, almost all year long)
• Foregoing recycling because it’s time-consuming or inconvenient
• Foregoing reusing because new things are “nicer,” the latest trend, or debatably less work to just purchase new items
• Using the dishwasher, washer, or dryer when nearly empty

And wouldn’t you be much more likely to keep these habits up if you were offsetting your carbon footprint? And wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to offset and modify your absolutely changeable habits?

At the same time…

Back to Carbon Fund’s slogan – “reduce what you can, offset what you can’t” – it is completely possible, or even likely, that many people will choose to reduce, reuse, recycle, and offset.

But, really, how many individuals do you know who are that devoted? Who are already making significant efforts to greenify (it’s a word!) their lifestyle? Are you?

Greenifying ourselves will require changing what we:

• Eat (going vegan and buying locally)
• Wear (no more leather, suede, vinyl, and so on; giving up clothes, shoes, cosmetics, and more manufactured with toxic chemicals; using biodegradable sunscreen at the beach; etc.)
• Buy (opting for biodegradable cleaning products and paint, furniture, boycotting everything disposable and manufactured abroad, etc.)
• How we travel (bike, walk, jog, carpool, travel less, vacation closer to home, etc.)

And, naturally, many more aspects of our lives.

It won’t be easy – but isn’t it our only choice?

Read more about the downside of carbon offsets here and here.

P.S. Find other companies that offer carbon offsets here and here.