Bummer: Small Islands Caught Between Tourism And Climate Doom

This has been mentioned many times, namely, that so many island nations who want all sorts of climate cash make a huge chunk of their GDP, in many cases the majority, off of tourism. Meaning tourists fly in on fossil fueled jets and expect modern amenities in nice rooms. These islands, heck, even places like Hawaii, cannot survive without fossil fuels, as they also need fossil fueled jets and ships to bring them goods and food.

Small islands caught between tourism economy, climate change

Come visit the Maldives, its president entreated the world at this year’s United Nations General Assembly, moments before switching to an impassioned plea for help combating climate change. The adjacent appeals illustrated a central dilemma for many small island developing states: their livelihoods, or their lives?

The United Nations recognizes 38 member states, scattered across the world’s waters, as small island developing states grouped together because they face “unique social, economic and environmental challenges.”

This bloc is particularly vulnerable to climate change. This bloc is also particularly dependent on tourism — a significant driver of climate change, accountable for 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions alone, according to sustainable tourism expert Stefan Gössling — and an industry devastated by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The predicament these islands find themselves in is essentially recursive: Attract tourism for economic survival, which in turn contributes to climate change, which in turn bleaches the colorful reefs and destroys the pristine beaches that attract tourists. As is, by the end of the century, these low-lying islands could drown entirely.

“The difference between 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees is a death sentence for the Maldives,” President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih told the U.N. General Assembly last week.

They could give up their tourism business, right? Nope, they want climate cash. The small islands are whining about this and climate doom yet again, because the next Conference on the Parties is coming up in November. It just goes to show that most Warmists refuse to practice what they preach.

The decisive decade for climate change

In a subscriber-only live event, Oliver Morton, The Economist’s Briefings senior editor, and Catherine Brahic, Environment editor, discuss the recent findings of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report which has delivered the starkest warning yet about climate change. They also look ahead to the upcoming COP26 negotiations and discuss their expectations of this critical conference. You can watch the conversation in full below.

Every decade is the decisive one. It is interesting that you have journalists talking with journalists about their journalistic viewpoints, eh?