Ecotourism, climate change, peak oil and flying August 10, 2007
Posted by Ralph Pina in : ecotourism , 2comments
In an editorial about Angola, the editor of one of my favourite reads, Africa Geographic magazine, opined: “…tourism is more sustainable than oil or diamonds…”. Obvious and self-evident, one would think. But is it?
The oil industry is notorious for sucking the black liquid that fuels the developed world’s economies and lifestyles out of the ground in far-off places, yet leaving the local populations mired in poverty and conflict. The diamond industry has managed to engineer an artificially high monetary value for an essentially valueless “rock” through clever appeal to peoples’ vanity and ruthlessly controlling diamond supply on a global scale. Both resources are non-renewable – all diamonds will have been extracted someday (or the industry cartel will collapse) and global oil production may be fast approaching the backslope of Hubbert’s curve. And both industries leave indelible scars on the earth – witness the destruction of South Africa’s diamond coast and the pollution of the oil-rich Niger delta.
