Tourists or terminators?

gzlaser

IN the late 1980s, British writer Douglas Adams teamed up with zoologist Mark Cardwine to travel the world and see endangered animals.

Then they co-authored a book, Last Chance to See. Now, people are following their footsteps, anxious to see the Earth's most precious wonders before they disappear.

Ken Shapiro, editor-in-chief of TravelAge West, a magazine for travel agents, calls the trend \"the Tourism of Doom\". \"It's not just about going to an exotic place,\" Shapiro told the New York Times. \"It's about going someplace they expect will be gone in a generation.\"

\"From the tropics to the ice fields, doom is big business,\" writes Allen Salkin of the New York Times.

Under the guise of eco-tourism, doom tourists are rushing to see the summer Arctic Ice before it melts, the last snows of Kilimanjaro, the Amazon rainforest before it's burned or logged to the ground, or the Great Barrier Reef before the coral dies in an acidic sea.

According to the New York Times, however, some environmentalists believe doom tourism is adding to the devastating effects of global warming. \"This kind of travel is greedy, requiring airplanes and boats as well as new hotels. However well-intentioned, these trip takers may hasten the destruction of the very places they are trying to see,\" writes Allen Salkin.

The sinking of the cruise ship Explorer in Antarctica last month is symbolic of the eco-tourism problem. Explorer, after striking an iceberg and sinking, spilled 48,000 gallons of marine diesel fuel that seriously endangers the penguin population there.

According to John Stetson, a spokesman for the Will Steger Foundation, an environmental education organization in Minnesota, eco-tourism is just another \"ruse\" of the tourism industry.

\"Eco-tourism is more of a term for the marketer,\" he told the New York Times. \"Many people want to do what's right, so when something is marketed as the right thing, they tend to do that.\"

\"It's hard to fault somebody who wants to see something before it disappears, but it's unfortunate that in their pursuit of doing that, they contribute to the problem,\" he said.