Pau Gutierrez
#NoPlanetB: Climate crisis is real
A news report by The Guardian revealed that sea levels around the world have risen nearly 20cm (7.8 inches) since 1901, swallowing entire islands and creeping closer to populated areas of great coastal cities like New York, Melbourne, and Dakar.
Antarctica has lost 3 trillion tonnes of ice in the last 25 years, while climate models predict global heating between 3C to 4C by 2100—an event that will collapse the ecosystem, displace 10% of the world’s population and cause a third of all life on earth to face extinction.
SIDS, or Small Island Developing States such as the Maldives, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands, are all in threat of submerging should this happen. Sites and destinations of both cultural and historical importance will crumble, and the climate crisis will lead to changes in biodiversity that will render significant changes in the environment.
Sadly, the contribution of tourism to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is rising, and is projected to grow by up to 130% by 2035. Around the world, burgeoning numbers of tourists are straining sensitive ecosystems to the breaking point. Just look at Thailand’s Maya Bay, Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay, and our own tiny island paradise that is Boracay.
An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash—most of it plastic—is dumped in the world’s oceans every year, part of which came from the tourism sector and is caused by ineffective waste management measures.
We at Out of Town Blog have and will always work to bring our readers the latest travel news wherever they are in the world, and part of this commitment is raising awareness on the perils that our planet faces. We are now in a global crisis, and we need to get this message across whatever way we can as fast as we can.
Here we believe that our planet is our responsibility and reporting about it is a priority. From here on, you can now read articles about the environment and the things we can do to help preserve it in this column, #NoPlanetB.
It might seem a daunting task to try, but we will try otherwise.
The first article of this column will be about “The Sustainable Diner,” an initiative by WWF which aims to raise awareness about the environmental impacts of food, increase the number of healthy and eco-friendly dishes in restaurants, and to reduce food waste.
Also read: #WalangPasok: June 5, 2019, Wednesday a National Holiday in observance of Eid’l Fitr
