“The dog days of summer are not just barking, they are biting,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in a prepared statement published Sept. 6. “Our planet has just endured a season of simmering - the hottest summer on record. Climate breakdown has begun.”
Tourism destinations are starting to take note - and get worried - about the toll climate change could take on this enormous industry.Escaping to the Spanish coast for the summer used to sound like a dream. This year it turned into more of a nightmare for Mediterranean travelers. The coastal city of Valencia, Spain, saw temperatures reach 116 degrees Fahrenheit in August, a record high. That came amid Spain’s limits on air conditioning use in public spaces, leaving tourists to sweat it out.
Closer to home, many popular destinations have already been affected by rising temperatures. The namesake glaciers of Glacier National Park have lost an average of 40% of their size between 1966 and 2015, according to the National Park Service. Florida’s coral reefs were bleaching and dying under the stress of record ocean temperatures this summer.Summers are for vacations - that’s a truth so universally acknowledged as to be almost self-evident.
Cherry blossoms in Japan are flowering 11 days earlier than they used to, according to a 2022 report in the journal Environmental Research Letters. This has shifted the tourist-attracting cherry blossom festival from April into March. What does that mean for airline passengers? Either they must begin reducing the number of miles they fly, or governments may begin imposing restrictions in order to reduce emissions.