Random Article ~ "Honey, I Sunk the Maldives"

"Honey, I Sunk the Maldives" sounds so funny, plus it sounds sarcastic. I kind of like the title. It fully foreshadow the future if we continue to ignore the earth changing environment and not doing anything to slow it [global warming] down. For sure, it's impossible to stop global warming, so the best thing to do is to slow it down.

Some tourist popular places are facing scary scenarios like sinking, melting, or even literally vanishing from the face of the earth. This is all due to global warming, irresponsible activities from tourist.

Some of those "affected" places are:

Maldive Islands located at the Republic of Maldives. The Maldives is a chain of island in the Indian Ocean. Scientists fear that it could be submerged by 2050. Since, the Maldives is about three feet above sea level, which is one of the dangerous factor. Even through a buffer was built in the 1900s, but the problem has not solved the problem. The government are trying to relocate the residents, but this is still in talks.

Dalmation Coast located in Croatia. It's problem was a new set of laws set up by the government last year which requires villa owners to register for business as well as ­residential permits. This process can take as long as a year, so it scares away foreign investment. This threaten the Croatian tourism industry (it makes up 12% of the country GDP).

The Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Heavy tourist traffic, ocean acidification, and rising water temperatures cause the live coral off Australia’s northeast coast to shrink rapidly. Scientists believe that by 2050, the Great Barrier Reef will have lost an estimated 95% of its living coral." It's a sad thing to know, since we will be losing one of the world's wonder...sigh...

The Mount Kilimanjaro's glaciers that cover the landmark are receding rapidly. Mount Kilimanjaro have lost 84% of ice since 1912 and today cover less than one square mile. "Scientists believe the glaciers could be gone completely by 2020, taking with them Tanzania’s main tourist draw...Mount Kilimanjaro’s glaciers have lost 84 percent of their ice since 1912."

The Alps in Switzerland. Due to global warming," it is estimated that about 40 percent of the mountain range’s pristine skiing areas will disappear by 2100...About 40 percent of the Alps’ skiing areas will disappear by 2100."

The Galápagos Islands was one of the main concern. The Galápagos which was consider to be the world’s purest biodiversity environment; scientists are concerned that the traffic surge will affect the islands’ life forms. "They consider 39 percent of animal species, 50 percent of marine species, and 59 percent of plant species to be threatened. To curb the problem, Ecuador is considering setting a yearly tourist cap and imposing an entry fee of up to $300...Since 1990, visitors to the Galápagos have more than quadrupled, to 180,000."

I have watch a documentary about the Galápagos Islands. I love that place; it was so beautiful. I think that it's kind of sad to see places like these are going to "disappear" in the future. In addition, these are not all of the "affected" areas, there could more places that we are not aware of, but it is disappearing.

Works Cited:
Angelo, Megan. Honey, I Sunk the Maldives. Yahoo! http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-27384279.