Effects of Global Warming on Parks, Recreation and Tourism Essay

Effects of Global Warming on Parks, Recreation and Tourism - Essay Example The irony is that tourism itself is contributing to the very process that threatens it. Tourism relies on cars and buses, air-conditioning and air travel all of which release warm gasses. It accounts for about 5% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions (Rosenthal, 2007). Tourism is significant for the global economy but there is an interrelationship with the climate. Global warming is a challenge for the tourism industry in the mountain areas but it results in the long summer season. This makes it interesting to concentrate on the effect on mountain tourism and then generalize on the overall impact on the tourism industry. Global mean temperature has increased by about 0.6 - 1Â °C over the last 100 years and will increase in the future as well. The temperature would further increase from 1.4 to 5.8Â ° until 2100 (Burki, Elsasser & Abegg, 2003). Global warming will be stronger on the land surface, the northern hemisphere and in winter, which means the summer season would be l onger. In the alpine areas, the financial viability of winter tourism industry depends on skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. Warmer temperature would affect ski tourism in mountain areas. Swiss glaciers have been steadily losing their surface since 1850 and it is expected that by 2030, 20 to 70% of the glaciers would have disappeared. Not only the mountain aesthetic is lost skiing slopes too are affected. Mountain areas become vulnerable to landslides and the cableway stations become unstable. Fog level would increase which would mean more summer tourism like hiking, trekking or biking. With warmer winters ice fishing would be impossible. Burki, Elsasser, and Abegg, however, contend that the climate change has been exaggerated by the media, science, and politics.