Last chance to see: Climate Sightseeing

Today Online 1 Mar 08;

Tourists are heading to formerly ignored destinations before warming weather takes its toll

That dream vacation — diving along the Great Barrier Reef, skiing in the Swiss Alps — could remain a dream forever if you don't get a move on it.

The brilliant coral off the coast of Australia could be largely gone by 2050, says a climate change report published last year. And the lack of snow in the Alps is already forcing operators to invest in more snowmaking equipment.

The attention focused on these changes lately, and the overall issue of global warming, has already prompted predictions that people will travel differently in 2008 and beyond.

Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and the time-lapse photography were not lost on a number of people. And increasingly, people are wanting to see these sights of the world before they change shape or change form. As global warming is rising up the world's agenda, ecotourists are flocking to previously ignored places.

It's been called climate sightseeing, a kind of farewell tour of Earth's greatest hits. Hard data is not available — determining exactly why people go where they do is next to impossible. But a clear interest in ecotourism, coupled with greater accessibility to places like the Earth's poles, means more people are visiting faraway and endangered sites, whatever their motives.

The subject is full of paradoxes: The more you travel, for example, the more you're contributing to the problem that made you go to an endangered site in the first place. And some places — Canada, perhaps Russia and other cold climes — are likely to attract more tourists as they warm.

Meteorologist and author of The Rough Guide to Climate Change, Robert Henson says: "Stay longer. Go ahead and travel, but do it smartly. Get direct flights; use a train to get around."

Here is a short list of places that are feeling the effects of global warming today — places to consider as you put together your travel plans. — MCT

GO >>>>>

Polar regions: There's no doubt change is afoot at opposite ends of the earth. To the north, the Greenland ice cap is melting faster than expected. Temperatures, too, have increased in Antarctica. Both spell problems for polar bears and penguins, not to mention — if the ice melts entirely — probably the rest of us. Between Gore's movie, which highlighted the plight of polar bears, and a spate of penguin films in the last few years, trips to Greenland, Norway and Antarctica have become all the rage.

Low-lying islands

The Maldives, a group of low-lying atolls in the Indian Ocean that are popular with scuba divers, are mentioned often in the context of global warming. They were named a prime example of a top tourist destination at risk in "Places to Visit by 2020", a 2006 report by the British Centre for Future Studies.

A tiny Polynesian island nation called Tuvalu, too, will disappear if the sea continues to rise. The attraction, beyond seeing possibly the world's most endangered island, is snorkelling and scuba diving.

The Great Barrier Reef,

coral reefs in general

Warmer oceans mean stressed coral, which results in bleaching and death. This isn't news to anyone who dives or snorkels regularly. The Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia is the world's largest, and many reports a few years ago warned of its death within a few decades. The 2007 report suggests the reef could be dominated by "non-coral organisms" by 2050.

The Alps

The lack of snow in the Alps is forcing smaller operators who can't afford large investments in snowmaking equipment out of business. Glaciers there are melting as well, so both the ski scene and the scenery will be changing in the next several decades.